On Friday afternoon in London, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story had its big moment at Star Wars Celebration (which you may very well have watched on the live stream). The Gareth Edwards-directed movie takes place in the lead-up to the original Star Wars, focusing on the team (led by Felicity Jones’ Jyn Erso) that steals the plans to the original Death Star. Rogue One has had an interesting few weeks, plagued by rumors surrounding reshoots, the film needed to get its message back on track.
Regardless, before the panel started, sitting in the audience (as I was), people seemed excited! Ahead is everything we learned from the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story panel:
– The big news was the footage shown only to this crowd that nobody streaming the panel got to see. There was a sizzle reel that you’ve for sure seen already, but the audience assembled in London also saw an exclusive trailer. The footage starts with a young Jyn Erso running across a field, as an Imperial shuttle flies overhead. We then flash forward to see captured members of the Rebellion being marched through the streets, followed by now adult Jyn (Felicity Jones) giving a pep talk to her fellow Rebels about making a difference. There weren’t any long scenes, just a hodgepodge of new images and new ships. But, the money shot arrived at the end when we see a reflection on the floor of the Death Star of a familiar black helmet. Then the breathing starts. Then the assembled crowd went nuts because they just saw their first glimpse of Darth Vader in Rogue One. (Well, a reflection of Vader on a shiny Death Star floor, at least.)
– Gwendoline Christie hosted the panel. When she started, she mentioned the events in Nice and a rendition of “La Marseillaise” broke out in the crowd. It was haunting to witness.
– Rogue One is really playing up the opening crawl from A New Hope, which mentions the battle to steal the Death Star plans, as it should. A whole new graphic was used to illustrate this.
– The concept for Rogue One was spawned around the time of Revenge of the Sith when George Lucas was developing an episodic television show (that never happened). Unfortunately (or, probably, fortunately) the series wasn’t set in the proper timeframe for this idea to work.
– Gareth Edwards used the army in Maldives to play Stormtroopers storming the beach. Afterwards, Edwards learned that his actors had absolutely no idea what Star Wars is.
– Unfortunately for the happy fans, the footage stopped working about halfway through its presentation. Viewers at home thought it was odd no one was cheering after the footage – well, that’s why: we didn’t see much of it.
– Alan Tudyk, who plays a CGI droid named K-2SO, shared a story about meeting Anthony Daniels, who plays C-3PO. Apparently after Daniels found out Tudyk was CGI, Daniels replied, “You shit.”
– Bodhi sports an Imperial patch in a lot of photos we’ve seen of him. On stage, Riz Ahmed reveals that Bodhi works for the Empire, but is considering a career change.
– Jedha, where a good amount of Rogue One takes place, is a spiritual planet where people come to pay respects to the fallen Jedi, in this world where Jedi supposedly no longer exist. Gareth Edwards compared it to traveling to Mecca.
– Jiang Wen admitted his English isn’t very good, but it was good enough to reveal a pretty major spoiler. I won’t share what that was, but if you do a Twitter search, it won’t be hard to find. (Also: poor guy.)
– Mads Mikkelsen plays Jyn’s father (which we knew), who, it’s hinted, was a scientist who invented the technology that created the Death Star.
– Darth Vader is in Rogue One, which we also knew even before the new footage. We don’t know much about what the Dark Lord of the Sith will be doing, but Gareth Edwards did reveal that he will use the word “power.” (Which caused Edwards to have a “nerdgasm.”) We will probably have to wait until Rogue One is released in theaters this December to learn much more.
Mike Ryan lives in New York City and has written for The Huffington Post, Wired, Vanity Fair and New York magazine. He is senior entertainment writer at Uproxx. You can contact him directly on Twitter.
