Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has been in theatres for little over a week now, and Gareth Edwards’ spinoff – the first of Disney and Lucasfilm’s planned anthology series – is doing gangbusters, having blown past $400 million worldwide just yesterday.
Angled as a prequel to Star Wars: A New Hope, the spinoff has struck a chord with longtime fans of the beloved space opera for its mix of nostalgia and cutting-edge special effects, particularly when it comes to that jaw-dropping battle scene on Scarif. No spoilers here, but if you’re wanting a concise recap of Rogue One‘s best moments, look no further than our latest feature.
It all goes to show that Rogue One was moulded with tremendous craft and care, much of which stems from Gareth Edwards and his unabiding love for all things Star Wars. As a matter of fact, when quizzed about A New Hope during an extensive interview with Little White Lies, the filmmaker admitted that he’s seen George Lucas’ seminal classic a hundred times over and, perhaps most exciting of all, the creatives at Lucasfilm are in possession of a 4K restoration of the ’77 original.
“On day one, we were in Lucasfilm in San Francisco with Industrial Light and Magic,” says Edwards, “and John Knowles, our supervisor, he said that they’ve got a brand new 4K restoration print of ‘A New Hope’ – it had literally just been finished. He suggested we sit and watch it.”
Alas, Gareth Edwards doesn’t specify whether that restoration is of the original theatrical cut or the Special Edition version, nor if the 4K version will ever be released.
“I’ll add that I’ve seen ‘A New Hope’ hundreds of times,” Edwards continues. “So I sat there, ready to take notes and really delve under the surface of the film…Next thing we knew it had ended, and we looked around to one another and just thought – shit, we didn’t take any notes. You can’t watch it without getting carried away.”
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is currently playing in theatres across the galaxy.