Rogue One director Gareth Edwards stole the Death Star plans

It wasn't the Rebellion at all

The culprit behind the theft of the Death Star plans has been revealed - Rogue One director Gareth Edwards has them.

Star Wars prequel Rogue One follows a team of Rebels who plot to steal those very plans which lead to the events of Episode IV: A New Hope.

The blueprints, however, lie in the mitts of Edwards, who was forthcoming in a Facebook live chat when asked if he stole a prop from the set of the future blockbuster.

"There was only one thing I wanted the whole shoot, and the entire time I kept whispering to people, like, 'Where do you keep that? Where will it be at the end? How do I get a hold of it? Can I have it?' And they were like 'No, this is going to be archived. A part of history'," i09 reports Edwards as saying during a live Facebook chat.

Rogue One - which Lucasfilm president stated will be a standalone film no matter how successful it is - stars Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn and Forest Whitaker.

It's been revealed that a preview of Christopher Nolan's upcoming WWII drama Dunkirk will be shown ahead of the film in select cinema screens that host 70mm IMAX.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story arrives in cinemas on 16 December.