Movie Fact #12 - August 29th, 2020
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The 2016 film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story narrative-wise takes place days before the events of the original 1977 film Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. Rogue One went to several lengths to make it believable it was set in that part of the Star Wars timeline. This included making Grand Moff Tarkin (Originally played by the late Peter Cushing) part of the story as well as a cameo by a young Princess Leia (Originally played by Carrie Fisher), both accomplished through CGI. But the biggest surprise cameos happened in the climactic space battle above the planet Scarif, with the inclusion of old footage from Episode IV to give the illusion of the return of actor Gordon "Drewe" Henley as X-Wing Squadron Red Leader Garven Dreis and actor Angus MacInnes as Y-wing Squadron Gold Leader Jon "Dutch"Vander. This was not always planned but actually happened by accident. Rogue One director Gareth Edwards and his creative team found the unused footage while rummaging around the Lucasfilm warehouses. While Henley (Red Leader) had retired from acting (And would pass 10 months before the release of Rogue One), MacInnes (Gold Leader) actually came back and recorded additional lines for the newer film. Just goes to show, while we all will someday become one with the Force, film allows us to remain in memory long after. That is it's true power. Stay tuned!