Tony Gilroy Says There’s No Need to Re-Edit ‘Rogue One’… But What If…? (Editorial)
In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Tony Gilroy was asked whether another edit of Rogue One could ever be released. True-to-form, Gilroy did not beat around the bush with his answer. Below, we break down Gilroy’s comments, and then, staff writer Miguel Fernandez provides insightful commentary on Rogue One‘s highs and lows, as well as the merits and drawbacks of a possible alternate edit.
Regarding the potential for another edit, Gilroy said bluntly:
“Uh, no. That was the absolute best possible version you could ever have. Oh my God. No. No.
I’m not going to go into any more detail, but the more authority that you hear people talk about online about what happened on that movie, the less they know. That’s all that needs to be said. Maybe someday … but no. That’s the absolute best version of that movie that you could possibly imagine in the time that was given.”
Rogue One was directed by Gareth Edwards, a fact that is sometimes easy to forget given Gilroy’s heavy involvement towards the end of production. So much involvement in fact that Gilroy earned a screenwriting credit from the effort and largely receives praise for salvaging the movie, which is now many fans’ favorite of the standalone films.
Rogue One’s extensive reshoots occasionally give rise to a conversation around alternate edit releases, as seen here. This also the case because fans were shown brief glimpses of scenes in early trailers and TV spots that never made it into the final version, sparking curiosity about this unused footage. Check out a compilation of it all below:
Miguel’s thoughts on the matter:
It’s hard to deny, despite my love for the sequel trilogy overall, that Rogue One may be the most beloved film to come out of the Disney era of Star Wars so far. It was almost praised as a miracle in December of 2016 given it had been a movie with so many on-set problems, rewrites, and reshoots; it actually came together quite nicely and was a hit with critics and audiences alike. Much of the credit obviously goes out to Gilroy, who came in during the reshoots to spearhead the creative overhaul, according to reports.
And yet, most of the accolades the movie receives from fans are, at least to me, about the second half of the film. The movie becomes much more focused once Jyn Erso reunites with her father before he dies, and starts building some actual momentum once they set out to Scarif, culminating in an hour-long dream come true for almost any veteran Star Wars fan. But that first hour…
The fact the movie had problems during production was mostly evident during the first 60 minutes or so. We are introduced to a dozen new characters, and it’s actually quite hard to get attached to any of them because we are jumping so quickly between storylines and places, plus their motivations seem all over the place until they start to meet each other. The first hour of the movie suffers from some pacing issues that could have probably been fixed by taking more time in the edit bay.
Riz Ahmed’s Bodhi Rook is supposed to be a major character in the film, yet all we know about him is that he’s the pilot. And don’t even get me started on Wen Jiang’s Baze Malbus, Chirrut’s sidekick (the fact that I have to point that out indicates how many times we actually hear his name in the film). We don’t need a 10-minute backstory for every character introduced in such a large ensemble, but in these cases I always throw it back to The Fellowship of the Ring, a (rather long, yes) masterpiece of a film that managed to introduce at least two dozen main characters and to make us understand each one of them, all by developing a solid shooting script and a careful editing process.
And yes, not all of the problems from the first hour of Rogue One come from the editing (a lot of that is that they didn’t have a good shooting script and had to call in Gilroy to rework it after principal photography had completed), but it would be a good point to start in order to make the story a bit more cohesive and focused during that first hour.
For what it’s worth, if there is a Disney Star Wars film suffering from massive editing problems, it’s The Rise of Skywalker; and the two films are cases that mirror each other… John Gilroy, who was a co-editor on Rogue One, worked on multiple episodes of Andor, including The Eye, which was an editing miracle. Meanwhile, Maryann Brandon co-edited The Rise of Skywalker after earning an Oscar nomination for her work on The Force Awakens, which is an amazing feat of editing as well.
Would you like to see an alternate edit of Rogue One or is it better to let that sleeping dog lie? Sound off in the comments below!
When she isn't watching her friends and family's eyes glaze over at the mention of The Clone Wars, she's at the park with her dog, Melvin, or on the couch with a book in one hand and a drink in the other. Physically, she lives in Ohio; spiritually, she lives in Naboo.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
