Rumors of dramatic reshoots on Rogue One may have been greatly exaggerated. This, according to Mads Mikkelsen, who starred in the 2016 Star Wars movie as Galen Erso. It is indeed true that the Disney/Lucasfilm production underwent extensive reshoots and rewrites before its release. Much was made of this in the press ahead of and following the movie’s release. But Mikkelsen is now downplaying the dramatic nature of the reshoots.
Mads Mikkelsen recently appeared as a guest on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. Naturally, the subject of Rogue One came up. In addressing the rewrites/reshoots, the actor did say that it was a little chaotic at times, if not as dramatic as it was made out to be. Here’s what he had to say about it.
“Some of it was a little chaotic. There was no secret that there was some rewriting in the script while we were doing it. And when you do that … it is obviously very tricky for the actors to know ‘What am I carrying into this room now? I opened the door. I’m not back to what happened before.’ So there was some of that. Having said that, it always felt like a solid story. A young girl lost, [who] doesn’t know where she belongs in the world. Then an Oppenheimer story unfolds. She’s always heard [her father Galen] was this, and then she realizes he was that. And it was quite beautifully written. At the end of the day, the changes that were in the film were not as dramatic as people talk about. It was tweaks, but obviously, if you do it while you’re working it can be confusing.”
It seems the core story at the heart of Rogue One, which was the first Star Wars movie to take place outside of the episodic Skywalker saga, remained in place through the shoot. But, based on footage we saw in trailers that never made it to the final cut, as well as Tony Gilroy coming in to do rewrites and oversee reshoots on set, we know it was an ever-evolving process. Even until late in the game.
For example, director Gareth Edwards has been open and honest about the fact that the now-infamous Darth Vader hallway scene at the end of the movie was a last-minute addition. They came up with the idea in mere months before the release date and hatched a plan to get it done. That is just one example of how things were changing in the late stages of production.
Whether or not the Rogue One reshoots were dramatic, things worked out in the end. Rogue One was a hit with critics and went on to earn more than $1 billion at the global box office. A prequel series is in the works for Disney+ titled Andor, with Diego Luna reprising his role as Cassian Andor. It is worth noting that Gareth Edwards is not involved, though Tony Gilroy is on board as showrunner and executive producer. You can check out the full interview with Mads Mikkelsen on the latest episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast.