Director Gareth Edwards rose to prominence with the sci-fi film Monsters, before directing Godzilla. The latter laid the foundation for the Monsterverse, which is thriving even today. Edwards followed up that film by directing the first live-action spin-off Star Wars movie Rogue One, which became a critical and commercial success.
Given Edwards has worked with two of the most popular franchises of all time, fans were curious to learn whether the director applied some of his Godzilla learnings to Rogue One. In response, Edwards revealed the one mistake he made with Godzilla that held the film back, which he was determined to rectify at all costs with Rogue One. Here is what Edwards said about directing Rogue One.
Gareth Edwards Reveals One Godzilla Mistake He Rectified in Rogue One
Director Gareth Edwards helmed 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which is widely considered one of the best films in the franchise to be made under Disney. It received positive reviews from critics and grossed $1.056 billion at the global box office.
Following the film’s success, Edwards did an AMA session on Reddit, where fans posed their questions to the director. One fan asked Edwards what he had learned while working on his previous big-budget film Godzilla, which translated well while working on Rogue One.
“I guess there are many lessons. Visually, I wanted to have a team of concept artists working on Rogue One ALL the way through the film. Typically on a big movie, the artists only work during the script-writing phase, but you end up always tweaking and improving everything.”
Edwards made the above statement to highlight the concept design as one key area where he hoped to improve while working on Rogue One.
“So having designers and concept artists work and redesign and keep pushing things all the way until the last month of the process was something we did on Rogue that wasn’t on Godzilla so much.”
Edwards used the above words to explain how his approach to concept art and designing the film’s world for Rogue One was shaped by his experience with Godzilla. Given that Rogue One surpassed Godzilla in box office collections and was better received critically, it is safe to say that Edwards rectified his mistake.
Gareth Edwards Shares the Most Surprising Thing About Rogue One‘s Success
During the same Reddit AMA session, Edwards was also asked about the most surprising aspect of the success he received after Rogue One‘s release. In response, Edwards stated that he was surprised by how fans were responding to the film, especially the new additions it made to the wider Star Wars universe.
“It’s so weird seeing things you and a friend designed in a room 2 years ago, appearing on T-shirts and boxer shorts and socks.”
Edwards explained how he was surprised by the way the Star Wars fandom embraced Rogue One, especially in terms of its merchandise.
Additionally, Edwards also stated that he was grateful and relieved that franchise creator George Lucas had reacted positively to the movie. The film also led to the spin-off series Andor, which focuses on the titular character who was first introduced in Rogue One.
Rogue One and Andor are streaming on Disney+.
