Even though it’s been five years since Rogue One was released, it remains the last time Star Wars fans were in full agreement that they all loved a movie set in a galaxy far, far away.
Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi proved to be one of the most polarizing blockbusters in recent memory, while Solo barely secured a Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes before flopping at the box office, and J.J. Abrams’ The Rise of Skywalker proved highly contentious for an altogether different set of reasons.
Rogue One remains the benchmark that the next slate of projects have to reach, then, and in an interview with StarWars.com to celebrate the acclaimed epic’s fifth anniversary, director Gareth Edwards admitted he’s relieved that no sort of notable backlash followed his contributions to the mythology.
“I’m just glad people don’t seem to hate it. The biggest fear was that we were gonna ruin their childhood by reinventing or baking into canon what they imagined was something else. So I’m more relieved if anything, that people don’t hate the movie, if they’re not shouting at me across the street. In terms of people liking it, I feel like any compliments I ever hear about it, I just feel like are people being nice to me. I can’t accept it as a reality, really.”
Star Wars enthusiasts are firmly on board with the Disney Plus expansion, but sighs rang out across the internet when it was announced that Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron had been hit with an indefinite delay. Taika Waititi and Kevin Feige are developing films of their own, but they’ve got some way to go if they want to enjoy the same sort of adulation that regularly finds Rogue One named as one of, if not the best installment in the franchise’s history.