A decade before Gareth Edwards summoned Godzilla from the depths or commanded Rebel soldiers on the beach of Scarif, he visited the childhood home of Luke Skywalker on the planet Tatooine. The new digital download release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story reveals the hardcore fandom of Gareth Edwards like never before.
On Friday, the special features on the digital release of Rogue One revealed a brief look at Edwards’s 2005 fan pilgrimage to the original home of Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: A New Hope. While hanging out in the Lars family homestead in Tunisia, Edwards sips blue milk and almost makes you believe there are two suns setting behind him and not one. Interestingly, 2005 was the last time a Star Wars movie used Tunisia for Tatooine; it was when Obi-Wan Kenobi handed off the infant Luke to his Aunt and Uncle. Could Edwards have crossed paths with Ewan McGregor? Felt his presence in the Force?
As the mini-documentary reveals, Lucasfilm head, Kathleen Kennedy, was actually taken aback on how “big of a fan” Edwards actually was before hiring him as the director. Kiri Hart, speaking for the Lucasfilm Story Group, said she was sold on Edwards when he told her, “I want to join the Rebel Alliance.” Elsewhere, in a different extra feature, Edwards reflects on the grey nature of the characters in Rogue One and how they differ from the characters in the rest of Star Wars: “People aren’t just bad or good, there’s complexity to everyone.”
There is a complexity to everyone, that is, except for hardcore Star Wars fans, who, like Edwards, just want to wake up on a desert planet and dream of a life of adventure.
Rogue One is out today for digital download from multiple platforms, including Google Play, iTunes, Vudu, and others. It will release on Blu-ray and DVD on April 4.
