Lucasfilm Staff Explain Where Wedge Was During Star Wars: Rogue One.
At the end of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, much of the Rebel Fleet assembles over Scarif to assist in the unauthorized mission to steal the Death Star plans, and though some familiar faces are seen, including Red Leader and Gold Leader – though Wedge Antilles is nowhere to be found. Lucasfilm’s staff have weighed in to explain why he had to sit the battle out and where he was instead (and how the movie actually answered the latter question without many people noticing).
Those of you who have been keeping up with our Weekly Social Buzz articles may know that we regularly feature Twitter conversations from the Lucasfilm Story Group’s Pablo Hidalgo, as they’re usually pretty helpful with making sense of the canon when it’s not at its most clear. So if you were expecting us to refer to his comments to discuss this issue, then, well, you’d be right! As it turns out, there’s a story reason preventing Wedge from being there.
So that explains why Wedge wasn’t present during the Battle of Scarif, but it doesn’t tell us about where he was when the battle went down. Well, that’s where Skywalker Sound’s Matthew Wood pitches in – according to the sound guru, Wedge was heard, but not seen, guiding the Rebel Pilots to their starships.
@indianajim @ballsinplay @IndianaJedi @pablohidalgo Wedge (voice of @DavidAnkrum1 ) is on Yavin 4, announcing to flight personnel to report in & redirect to Scarif, MTFBWY. He stays on Yavin.
— Matthew Wood (@matthewood) January 28, 2017
Some of you may have heard the “cameo” itself as background noise, but only a few have made the connection that it’s actually Wedge who’s talking. Since Denis Lawson has said that he’ll probably never reprise the role, hearing the animated Wedge speak might have gone over the heads of a few fans. But the good news is that the Lucasfilm Story Group hasn’t forgotten about the character, even if Lawson has moved on as an actor. Hopefully, Aftermath: Empire’s End should do the character justice no matter what his final fate ends up being.
Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.
We really need a Wedge movie along with Biggs and Porkins.
Still can’t believe they picked the name Porkins
Imagine the outrage if they did put him in Rogue One!? The PC police would have been all over it.
The should have called him Captain fatpants or sgt.bloatedguts..I mean, Porkins.. always a ridiculous name
Well, a Porkins-like fellow bequeathed Luke the Red 5 callsign by helpfully dying over Scarif. 🙂
I’ll forgive Porkins, because Lucas was just making a campy space fantasy at the time. It wasn’t yet a cultural icon. I have far less tolerance for equally awful names added to the canon since then. “Sleazebaggano?!?” Groan. Oh, and according to the old Marvel comic adaption, Biggs called Porkins “Piggy.” So…there’s that.
It’s funny how much I would have loved to see him in TFA and R1. Even a brief cameo. Shame he’s not into that. I don’t see how light fan service is such an insult to some actors. People love you… and want even a glimpse.
Oh well. He’s not my puppet to make dance.
He’s not really into SW anymore. Just like it was with sir Alec.
Re: “He’s not really into SW anymore”
More importantly – at least his nephew still is. 🙂
I still hope his nephew gets a chance to do a Star Wars Story film. It’s the only character-centric SW film I’m actually interested in. 🙂
Wait, Denis Lawson didn’t voice Wedge in A New Hope and in the rest of the OT? It was a voice actor? Why would that be for a human character?
Didn’t like his voice. Aunt Beru was also dubbed.
And the cantina bartender
I literally had no idea that was the case. Learned something new about a movie I thought I knew every little detail about. 🙂
Always fun!
No way! What the hell I never knew that..that’s pretty crazy
There are even two different ADR overdubs for Beru. The one most people who didn’t see the film back in ’77 know is from the Dolby stereo mix, which was also used for the home video release. However, since stereo theaters were pretty rare in 1977, the version most of us heard back then was from the mono mix. Here’s the mono version – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIUIyXT6xW8
Ugh, weird.
Wow thanks for that! It’s interesting to see all the history and all the advancements Star Wars went through.
Because they wanted American accents. They got a few Canadian actors in London at the time like the guys who played Biggs and Gold Leader. But the rest were Englishmen. Not all bit part English actors can pull off convincing Amercan accents. Hence the overdubs.
Dennis Lawson is Scottish!
Yeah – another part of Britain where they don’t speak with American accents.
Dennis Lawson wasn’t the only Wedge in ANH either.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/921385c046acc84a964b270de6b7a289f991102ee022d35d3b405e3d997af4c6.jpg
***Luke and [the other] Wedge
What’s funny is literally no one outside LFL thought of this. All this handwringing about continuity and LFL is way ahead of us.
Stop fretting. It’s in good hands.
I thought of it.
Yeah, Pablo has mentioned causally a couple times now that even though we might not yet see it, the story group is playing the long game. We’ll see/hear/read of little nuggets such as this here and there in various mediums.
Yep. So stop trying to catch them on this stuff haha. They got it
What about Biggs? Was he on tatooine with Luke?
Wow, yeah come to think of it. If he wasn’t already there, he was on his way back. We know that Biggs was at the Battle of Yavin.
At the time of the deleted Tattooine scenes, Biggs has just graduated from the Impreial Academy and gotten a commission aboard the merchant ship Rand Ecliptic (the ship’s role changed several times in EU retellings over the years, but I’m just going with Lucas’s original dialog). He and his other Rebel-sympathizing friends planned to jump ship at the first port of call and Biggs even admits that he doesn’t know how to make contact with the Rebellion. All of that easily accounts for why Biggs wasn’t at Scarif.
Yes.
So that deleted scene in ANH is canon then?
case by case basis, but there is nothing that is gonna contradict it.
Thanks Lucasfilm — that was keeping me up at night.
Has it ever been stated what wedge was up to during TFA? I’m curious if they are going to recast the character or say he retired or was killed during destruction of the new republic fleet. His absence seems too odd to leave unexplained being as he helped destroy 2 Death Stars, but seeing how the actor isn’t into SW anymore and Poe basically serves the same roll, I can’t see them giving the character any sizable role
Maybe he can take up some of Leias role as a general perhaps
We should find out in the 3rd, and final Aftermath novel, Empire’s End, which has already featured Wedge in the first two books. By the end of the second book, Wedge is all but done with flying X-wings and serving the New Republic for the most part due to personal and health reasons.
I just like to think he retired unless we hear otherwise
Don’t think he was ever into SW. He was all about the paycheck from the start. I like the character but Lawson’s attitude towards the whole thing makes me glad he’s being slowly removed from the EU.
If they wanted to recast him I can’t imagine anyone would really mind, it’s not like he brought anything special to the role.
Fear no more, Disney will be releasing novels to explain all this minutiae
Doubtful that’ll be the route that the Lf story group goes.
However, according to Lucasfilm sound designer Matthew Wood, Wedge stayed on Yavin 4 to talk to flight personnel and direct them to Scarif. The fact he knows this could suggest that, whenever the Rebels story catches up to Rogue One, we may see animated Wedge back at the base, closing the case on that burning question.
Rebels it is.
I can’t say I was wondering why Wedge was absent. I’m glad they cleared it up though.
I don’t think I thought of this because I was just so surprised by gold and red leader that it was all I needed. Kind of glad they didn’t put wedge in, even if they had footage of him, because at that point it might be cameo overload.
Though I do remember a lot of people complaining there was no porkins!
I was hoping to see him in E7. Ah well, no biggie. Still, if Lawson changes his mind down the road, I’m sure they could wedge him in somewhere.
Ahem….
Eh, screw him. The guy has consistently been a giant douche-nozzle about the whole thing. It was a couple of days out of his life each film and he’s still seen fit to whine about the work (like Serafinawiz) ever since. Fuck him.
I get nothin’ on the ‘wedge’ joke?
Wow, entitled much?
I don’t think Cranky is so cranky (haha) because Lawson refused to show up, but because he was a huge dick about it, which he was.
I suppose.
David Ankrum the same guy who dubbed in the voice of wedge in A New Hope did the intercom scenes of Rogue one, not the guy who did the voice of Wedge on Rebels as this story seems to imply by having a picture from Rebels
I’m pretty sure Pablo has said that they couldn’t put Wedge in the Rogue One space battle without breaking continuity, since Wedge sees the Death Star for the first time in ANH and exclaims “look at the size of that thing!” And they made the right choice.
Pretty sure that’s what the article says
Did they ever clear that mess up with the fake Wedge we see in the briefing room? I’d love to see Pablo talk his way out of that one.
Here, right from the horse’s mouth:
http://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-mysteries-hunting-for-the-fake-wedge
I guess Wedge just magically changes appearance for no reason. Fun 😉
The fake wedge looks like Adam Driver
EU Wedge was amazing…don’t really like his handling in Rebels.
I’d wait until we see him some more. He’s really only been in one episode.
1st impression is everything….and they blew it.
To you, maybe. I’ll agree to disagree, I guess.
If you want more Wedge, read Aftermath. No guarantee you
ll like that either.
That was even worse!
Heh heh. Thanks! I’d hate to see a bad pun to unappreciated. : D
Fascinating. Never knew about the whole “Fake Wedge” thing but now that I do I would totally love for Colin Higgins to come back in episode 8 or 9 and play a now high-ranking Wedge in the New Republic. Dennis Lawson had the opportunity, but he just seems bitter about star wars. I thought they would have to kill-off the character – but hey, if they are going to recast an older wedge- why not pick someone who actually was wedge in a star wars film (albeit only part of one)
Would love to know who Wendig banged to be given free-reign to write such drivel for Star Wars. His characters are bland and his plot lines are sophomoric. Can only hope that he’s out after this last novel.