In case you haven”t heard, Disney recently sent Rogue One: A Star Wars Story into reshoots. This has sparked the Internet into a feeding frenzy. What does it mean? Is the film bad? How much is being reshot? Is Gareth Edwards ruining the franchise by salting the Earth and bathing in the blood of Bothans?
You can”t swing an irate Cathar without hitting dozens of think pieces about the reshoots and if they”re the veritable canary in the coal mine signaling the demise of the Star Wars brand. Even HitFix got in on the speculation action. But while we like to imagine the rumor mill has Disney executives hyperventaliting into paper bags, that is pretty much the opposite of how they feel. At least accoring to Rogue One star Mads Mikkelsen.
In an interview with The Independent, Mikkelsen was tight-lipped on his character (probably after giving his publicist a heart attack in April), he did mention the reshoots.
[A]ll the big films I have done always have reshoots, it is part of their budget. [Rogue One is] the same film, it”s just adding little bits here and there to do the final polishing. That”s my feeling. [The press frenzy is] also interesting, all the rumours happening. [Disney] love that, it”s free publicity.
It just goes to show the old adage that there”s no such thing as bad publicity still holds true in the digital age.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story arrives in theaters on December 16, 2016.