It might seem like every other hour there’s yet another story about “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” but the truth is, the making of the movie is pretty fascinating. It’s one of the biggest brands and franchises on the planet, and especially when most Hollywood executives are cautious to the point of stunting any risk-taking, it’s really cool to hear how Lucasfilm allowed director Gareth Edwards to pursue his vision.
Indeed, the much-talked-about reshoots saw a lot of changes made, with some characters seemingly being completely redrafted. Edwards has already shared that Riz Ahmed‘s Bodhi underwent the biggest transformation, and the actor himself backs up that claim, revealing that his role became bigger.
“I signed up for the movie not having read a script or knowing where the character sat in the movie. I’ve got to be honest, the character was a different character at that point. He had a different name and a different relationship to the rest of the team, and he really evolved once I signed on and once I started shooting, even. They decided to start expanding the role and introducing him earlier and he became more integral to the story and the rest of the team. It’s interesting, looking back, that I signed up knowing nothing, but ultimately I’d sign up for a ‘Star Wars’ movie to make tea, just to be around that level of creativity,” Ahmed told Vulture.
“Listen, I don’t want to say that’s because of anything I was doing. Maybe they just got wise to my gigantic following in the Falkland Islands [laughs]. To be honest, it speaks volumes to their approach that they allowed things to evolve in an organic and fluid way. People talk about blockbuster movies being really stiff and like a big machine, and there is a lot of infrastructure around these stories and how people tell them, but you’ve also got a lot of people who are willing to unpick stitching that doesn’t work, rather than just embroider it. That takes guts, man,” he continued. “That takes balls, that takes heart. Things kept evolving, and they weren’t afraid to go back and change it or try to make it better. That can be scary, but it makes you realize that no one’s going to let anything be mediocre. You don’t normally have the time and resources to be that perfectionist about things, but they did.”
And truly, the more that comes out about the process of the reshoots, it’s really interesting to see the lengths Lucasfilm went to make sure the stuff that worked, really worked, while shuttling whatever material didn’t meet the high bar they have set for the quality of the franchise.
“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” is now playing everywhere.