When the word first broke about this December's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story undergoing re-shoots this summer, the distress klaxons sounded louder than a Star Destroyer's impact alarm. But now The Hollywood Reporter has dug into the issue, and discovered that while Gareth Edwards and his team will be gathering more footage, it's not quite as urgent as it sounds.
That said, it does appear that the film needs some work to bring it into line with the feel of the Star Wars universe. “This is the closest thing to a prequel ever,” a source tells the trade mag. “This takes place just before A New Hope and leads up to the 10 minutes before that classic film begins. You have to match the tone!”
There have been several versions of the script, and it seems as though Disney has yet to land on a tone for the movie that it likes, or that will fit in with The Force Awakens' hugely successful bottling of the original trilogy's magic.
At the same time, re-shoots are typical for big films these days, which can afford – and often budget for – extra shooting time to clarify plot points, bulk up action scenes or otherwise fix issues identified in early cuts. And you have to wonder what the executives thought they were getting, given that the film has always been described as in the vein of a war movie, and darker than some of the other Star Wars films.
We'll see the results when Rogue One lands in cinemas on December 16. And here's everything you need to know.