Hopefully by now you’ve had a chance to experience Rogue One in theaters. If not, you may want to stop reading further until you do so as Slashfilm has posted an article that takes us through various stages of the evolution of Rogue One‘s script from the early concept stages to the finished product we saw on screen.
The article is based off information pulled from The Art of Rogue One book as well as Pablo Hidalgo’s Rogue One Ultimate Visual Guide. There are quite a few interesting developments revealed in the article such as the initial proposed title of the film, early sketch designs/backstory for our Rebel/Imperial characters, and much more. A few tidbits are copied below, so be sure to take the source link for the full read.
More than 6,000 pieces of concept art were produced for Rogue One in the year and a half of production.
Gareth Edwards gave the art department a mandate that every scene should have an iconic frame.
The Imperial factory on Eadu came out of Edwards’ request for a James Bond supervillain secret base location.
At one point in the development of the movie, a mountain planet with a hidden base was going to house the inner dish of the Death Star. The idea was that it would rise up out of a mountaintop lake. Thrusters would propel the massive dish through space until its ultimately attached to the Death Star.
Chirrut wears a Jedha pendant of reforged gold depicting the ancient starbird symbol, which was only recently modified by the Rebel Alliance. He was part of the now almost extinct order called the Guardians of the Whills, which were devoted to protecting the Temple of Kyber in the holy city of Jedha.
Jyn’s necklace, which was given to her by her mother Lyra, is a fragment of a kyber crystal from Galen’s research. The stone caught Lyra’s eye when the family fled from Coruscant, and she took it to be a good omen.
The Ultimate Guide tells us that Jedha is speculated to be the origin point of the Jedi Order itself. If that was true, would the first Jedi temple be on Jedha? Remember, Luke Skywalker was thought to have gone in search of the first Jedi temple before the events of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. We had assumed he found this temple on Ach-To, but perhaps not? The book also says that some believe the Jedi got its name from the planet, while most scholars believe it to be the other way around.
The planet Jedha is described in the script as “a once-beautiful and ancient city,” and its a “place of pilgrimage for people across the galaxy.” The art department references Jerusalem, Morocco and the plateaus and Wadi rock of Jordan when designing the world. The occupation of Paris during World War II was used as inspiration for the city’s current battle-scarred state. In the middle of the city is the Temple of the Kyber.
