Star Wars director disagrees with popular opinion on hit prequel film

‘Rogue One’ proved a huge hit with Star Wars fans upon its release

Jurassic World: Rebirth director Gareth Edwards has downplayed claims that his 2016 film, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, is the best in the illustrious sci-fi franchise’s recent history.

Edwards, whose other films include Monsters (2010) and Godzilla (2014), struck gold with his prequel, which was set directly before the original 1977 Star Wars movie and told the story of how the Rebel Alliance gained the secret plans to destroy the Death Star.

The film, starring Felicity Jones, Diego Luna and Ben Mendelsohn, earned more than $1bn at the global box office and became a success among fans who called it a “triumph”. Star Wars alumni Mark Hamill said he was “euphoric” after watching it, adding that it was “ingenious the way it deepens and expands the [Star Wars universe] yet works as a stand-alone movie”.

Despite the film’s popularity, which has been revisited by many fans following the success of its Disney+ prequel series Andor, Edwards disagrees that it is the best Star Wars film that Disney has made since the studio bought Lucasfilm in 2012.

Speaking to Business Insider, Edwards said: “I don't agree with it [being the best film], but I appreciate it. I'm very grateful that people say nice things."

Expanding on his love of Star Wars, Edwards explained: “It’s the thing that was in my life before I knew what a film was. It’s like your mom; it’s like something that’s a part of you. I’m always fascinated by what they’re doing. I never stop loving that trilogy.”

Gareth Edwards (Getty Images)

After the release of Rogue One, it was reported that Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy had been heavily involved in extensive reshoots that changed the blockbuster’s ending.

“I came in after the director’s cut,” Gilroy said on The Moment with Brian Koppelman podcast in 2018. “I have a screenplay credit in the arbitration that was easily won.”

“It was just a mess and fear that they gotten themselves in,” he continued. “And because it wasn’t really my movie for a while, I slept every night.

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“Like for my own movie, I wouldn’t sleep, but because it was somebody else’s – but at a certain point, everyone’s looking at you.”

The cast of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Disney/Lucasfilm)

Speaking further, Gilroy said that “all the mess” was actually “very, very simple to solve,” explaining: “You sort of go, ‘This is a movie where, folks, just look. Everyone is going to die.’ So it’s a movie about sacrifice.”

Andor, which concluded earlier this year after its second season, has been widely lauded by critics, with fans hailing parts of the series as some of the “greatest episodes of television of all time” and perhaps the best storytelling in the history of George Lucas’s beloved franchise.