Rogue One: A Star Wars Story writer Gary Whitta has been taking questions from fans on Twitter over the last few days, which has resulted in some neat pieces of information about the film coming to light.
The pic had a famously troubled production, going through multiple rewrites, extensive reshoots and being taken away from original director Gareth Edwards. Taking all that into consideration, it’s amazing that the finished product stands among the very best in the franchise.
One of the neatest bits of info that’s trickled out though is that Whitta intended to name Mads Mikkelsen’s character Galen Erso after George Lucas. In response to a question by a fan named Galen as to how he decided on the name, Whitta explained that in his draft he was called Walton. This is George Lucas’ real middle name. In a later rewrite, this was changed to the name we see in the movie, though Walton remains the character’s official middle name. Given that Galen Erso plays a key role in shaping the Star Wars universe (he intentionally designed the vulnerability that allowed Luke Skywalker to destroy the Death Star), it’s certainly a fitting tribute.
Other than that, Whitta has been dropping some other interesting information as well. In answer to a question about how they decided to bring Saw Gerrara into the movies, he explained that they wanted an Apocalypse Now-like Colonel Kurtz character and realized that there was already someone who’d fit the bill in The Clone Wars. When asked what sequence he was proudest of, meanwhile, he said he was overjoyed that the Mustafar scenes in Vader’s castle made it into the pic, as he was worried they’d be too expensive and/or cut for time.
But my favorite response in this informal Q&A was when a fan asked him whether he’d ever consider writing a sequel to Rogue One. Whitta succinctly and neatly explained that this already exists. It’s called Star Wars.