In an interview posted over on the official site, Lucasfilm’s dandy Dan Brooks spends some time speaking with executive creative director Doug Chiang about the process of creating the first Star Wars standalone film Rogue One. Chiang touches on the design elements behind several key components of the film, so this is an interview you do NOT want to miss (as is the case with ALL interviews conducted by Dan).
For Doug Chiang, Rogue One wasn’t just the first Star Wars stand-alone film. It wasn’t just the telling of a major tale in Star Wars lore. It was, as StarWars.com found out in the interview below, something much more personal: the chance to really fulfill a childhood-turned-professional dream. As Lucasfilm’s VP and executive creative director, Chiang, a peerless concept artist, has been a key figure in crafting the look of Star Wars since the prequel trilogy. But Rogue One took Star Wars back to the future, as it were, with a story set right before the first film made in the saga, A New Hope. This meant that Chiang, co-production designer on Rogue One, would need to design ships and characters and creatures that were visually in sync with the movie that started it all — and the movie that made perhaps the biggest impact on his life. It was a unique if not ironic challenge, and the creative journey — of Chiang and many more great Lucasfilm designers — is documented in Abrams’ beautiful The Art of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, available now. Armed with spreads from the book, of which Chiang wrote the foreword, StarWars.com visited the artist in his office to discuss creating Episode IV-style designs, the dark-side architectural theory behind Darth Vader’s castle, and why thin stormtroopers are actually scarier.
