110 Fun Facts About Rogue One

Before Rogue One, director Gareth Edwards made which monster blockbuster?

Godzilla was his leap from Monsters, an indie he wrote, shot and did the effects for himself; his Star Wars job was announced the same month it came out.

Rogue One's final scene leads directly into the opening of which Star Wars film?

A New Hope opens with Vader chasing down the very ship that slips away with the stolen plans in Rogue One's last minutes.

Rogue One's story was pitched by John Knoll, a veteran supervisor at which Lucasfilm division?

Industrial Light & Magic's John Knoll pitched it to Lucasfilm after the Disney deal, saying he would otherwise always wonder what might have happened.

On which planet are the Ersos hiding when Orson Krennic arrives in the opening scene?

Lah'mu is the remote world where Krennic's squad kills Jyn's mother Lyra, and Saw Gerrera later pulls the girl from her hiding place.

From which Imperial labour camp is Jyn freed by the Rebels?

Wobani, an anagram of Obi-Wan, is where Jyn is serving 20 years under a false name until Rebel soldiers free her to help find her father.

What does the Empire loot from the moon of Jedha to power the Death Star?

Kyber crystals also power lightsabers; once the Empire has stripped Jedha of them, Krennic test-fires the Death Star on its Holy City.

On which planet is Galen Erso's Imperial research facility, the target of a Rebel bombing raid?

Eadu is where Galen dies in Jyn's arms after Rebel bombers hit the facility, and the group flees in a stolen Imperial shuttle.

Cassian Andor is secretly ordered to do what, rather than extract Galen Erso?

Kill him: Cassian hesitates when the moment comes at the research facility, and Galen dies in the Rebel bombing run instead.

Who names the stolen Imperial cargo shuttle 'Rogue One'?

Bodhi Rook improvises it as a call sign; the director said the title also marks the first film to go 'off-piste' from the saga.

How is the planetary shield generator over Scarif finally disabled?

Two Star Destroyers are rammed into each other when a Rebel corvette shoves one into the next, and the wreckage crashes into the shield gate.

Who plays Jyn Erso in Rogue One?

Felicity Jones won the part over Tatiana Maslany and Rooney Mara, who were both reported to be testing for the lead in January 2015.

Which Mexican actor plays Cassian Andor and later led the prequel series Andor?

Diego Luna landed the part after Aaron Paul and Édgar Ramírez were reported to be on the studio's interest list for the male lead.

Which Australian actor plays Imperial weapons director Orson Krennic?

Ben Mendelsohn's Krennic proves the Death Star works with a test firing, only for Tarkin to seize command of it on the pretext of a security leak.

Alan Tudyk provides the voice and motion capture for which character?

K-2SO stands about seven feet tall, so Tudyk performed him on stilts in a motion-capture suit and improvised many of the droid's lines.

Which Hong Kong martial-arts star plays the blind, Force-believing warrior of Jedha?

Donnie Yen's warrior is no Jedi: he has no Force powers, only faith in it, yet can beat a stormtrooper squad with a staff.

The blind warrior and his companion Baze Malbus are former members of which order?

The Guardians of the Whills revive a name from the saga's earliest outline, which its creator titled 'Journal of the Whills'.

Which Danish actor plays Galen Erso, the scientist who builds a secret flaw into the Death Star?

Mads Mikkelsen's Galen hides a fatal weakness in the reactor, the very flaw Luke Skywalker's torpedoes exploit in the 1977 film.

Which actor plays Saw Gerrera, the rebel extremist who rescues the young Jyn?

Forest Whitaker's Saw, kept alive by a breathing mask, refuses to flee and dies when the Death Star fires on Jedha City.

Riz Ahmed's character, the defector who carries Galen's message, had been what in the Empire?

A cargo pilot who defects at Galen's urging, he dies on Scarif moments after telling the fleet the shield must come down.

Grand Moff Tarkin was played on set by Guy Henry with whose digital likeness superimposed?

Peter Cushing died in 1994, so Lucasfilm sought his estate's permission, and the estate had input down to 'small, subtle adjustments'.

Which character is handed the stolen plans in Rogue One's final scene?

Princess Leia was played on set by Norwegian actress Ingvild Deila, with a young Carrie Fisher's face added digitally and archive audio for her one line.

Which two Rebel pilots return through unused footage from 1977's original Star Wars?

Gold Leader and Red Leader came from 1977 offcuts: Angus MacInnes recorded new lines, while the late Drewe Henley's dialogue was pieced together from archive audio.

Which director cameos as a Death Star technician, a year before his own Star Wars film opened?

Rian Johnson and his producer Ram Bergman play the masked crewmen in the firing chamber when the superlaser goes off; Rogue One's own director pops up in The Last Jedi in turn.

Which Star Wars Rebels droid makes a cameo, voiced by Dave Filoni?

Chopper rolls through the Rebel base in the background, and a base announcement mentions General Syndulla, his captain from Rebels.

Which screenwriter earned a shared credit for reworking Rogue One during reshoots?

Tony Gilroy reportedly earned more than $5 million overseeing reshoots that fixed, among other things, the ending, and later returned to the story as creator of Andor.

What happened to the heroes in the first version of Rogue One's script?

They survived because the director assumed Disney would never let him kill them off; the studio approved the darker ending and the survivor version was never filmed.

Which traditional Star Wars element does Rogue One deliberately omit at the start?

The opening crawl was dropped because, the director said, the film was 'born out of a crawl' and adding one would only set up another movie.

At which British studio was Rogue One's principal photography based?

Pinewood housed the huge sets, built to match footage that location units were shooting elsewhere around the world.

Which country's black-sand beach at Reynisfjara stood in for the Erso homestead?

Iceland did double duty: its mountains near Mýrdalssandur also became the storm-lashed planet of Galen's research base.

Which Middle Eastern desert stood in for the holy moon of Jedha?

Wadi Rum in Jordan had already played Mars in The Martian, and the Rogue One shoot won Jordan's film commission a Location Managers Guild award.

Which London Underground station became an Imperial base for a chase filmed after midnight?

Canary Wharf was filmed between midnight and 4 am while shut to passengers, and fans spotted its platforms in the first trailer within hours.

What childhood nickname does Galen Erso give Jyn, later the code name of the plans' file?

Stardust is the file name Jyn spots in the Scarif archive, a hidden message from her father that points her to the right plans.

Who composed Rogue One's score after Alexandre Desplat dropped out?

Michael Giacchino had only four and a half weeks, starting almost the moment he finished scoring Doctor Strange.

On which jungle moon is the Rebel base where Jyn is brought to meet the Alliance leaders?

Yavin 4 is the same hidden base the Death Star tracks down in the 1977 film, only to be destroyed there through the flaw Galen built.

Which studio's similarly titled 2015 film made Disney hold back Rogue One's early promotion?

Paramount had registered Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation with the MPAA first, so Disney agreed to hold its publicity until after mid-2015.

What tagline appeared on the Rogue One poster unveiled at Star Wars Celebration Europe in 2016?

A Rebellion Built on Hope echoes the film's signature line, 'Rebellions are built on hope', which Jyn uses to plead with the Alliance council.

Krennic is summoned to Darth Vader's castle on which planet?

Mustafar is where Obi-Wan left Vader maimed years earlier; his castle stands over a Sith cave close to that very spot.

What are the black-armoured elite soldiers who escort Krennic called?

Death troopers made their debut in this film as an elite Imperial Intelligence unit, and one of them shoots Jyn's mother in the opening scene.

Which James Luceno novel, released a month before Rogue One, tells the Ersos' backstory?

Catalyst follows Krennic as he draws his old friend Galen into energy research that secretly serves the Death Star project.

Which video game received a Rogue One: Scarif expansion with Jyn and Krennic as playable characters?

Star Wars Battlefront got the pack in December 2016; a planned Rogue One play set for Disney Infinity was scrapped when that series was cancelled.

Which new Rebel troop transport, flown by Cassian, made its debut in Rogue One?

The U-wing is a swing-wing gunship built to drop soldiers into battle and then fly air support; the heroes escape Jedha's destruction in one.

Which superhero film was the only 2016 release to out-gross Rogue One worldwide?

Captain America: Civil War took about $1.15 billion to Rogue One's $1.06 billion, so Disney owned both of 2016's two biggest films.

Which film followed Rogue One as the second standalone 'A Star Wars Story' release?

Solo arrived in 2018 after a troubled shoot in which its original directors were fired during filming and replaced.

Which film finally knocked Rogue One off the top of the US box office in its fourth weekend?

Hidden Figures trailed in Sunday's estimates, but the NASA drama edged ahead when the final weekend figures arrived on Monday.

Rogue One's two Oscar nominations were for sound mixing and which other craft?

Visual effects: the nominees included John Knoll, whose story pitch had started the whole film, but the award went to The Jungle Book.

Which Rogue One character lives by the mantra 'I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me'?

Chirrut Îmwe chants it as he walks through blaster fire to reach the master switch on Scarif, though he has no Force powers to protect him.

Which filmmaker's verdict on Rogue One did Gareth Edwards call 'the most important review to me'?

George Lucas was shown the film before release and phoned afterwards; Edwards said he could 'die happy now' because Lucas really liked it.

The rebel extremist Saw Gerrera first appeared in which animated series?

The Clone Wars introduced him in 2012 as a young guerrilla fighter; the saga's creator had first planned the character for a live-action series that was never made.

In which Star Wars film did Genevieve O'Reilly first play Mon Mothma?

Revenge of the Sith cut most of her scenes, so Rogue One and later Andor finally gave her Mon Mothma a substantial part.

Which original-trilogy actor appears on screen in Rogue One, back in his familiar costume?

Anthony Daniels returns for a seconds-long cameo as C-3PO, standing beside R2-D2 at the Rebel base as the fleet heads for Scarif.

Which prequel-trilogy actor returns as Alderaan's Senator Bail Organa?

Jimmy Smits first played Bail Organa in Attack of the Clones; his home world Alderaan is the planet the Death Star destroys in the 1977 film.

Which larger freight-hauling cousin of the AT-AT guards the beaches of Scarif?

AT-ACT stands for All Terrain Armored Cargo Transport: an armed freight walker pressed into battle when the Rebels land.

Which Mon Calamari admiral commands the Rebel fleet above Scarif?

Admiral Raddus has little patience for the council's debates; his flagship receives the transmitted plans, and Vader boards it moments later.

Doctor Evazan and Ponda Baba, who jostle Jyn on Jedha, are best known from which scene in 1977's Star Wars?

The Mos Eisley cantina is where the pair pick a fight with Luke and meet Obi-Wan's lightsaber, so Rogue One catches them days earlier, already looking for trouble.

What name is given to Saw Gerrera's band of extremist fighters on Jedha?

The Partisans' extreme methods led to Saw's break with the Rebel Alliance, so the Rebels send Jyn, whom he raised, to ask for his help.

Which Indian Ocean island nation stood in for the tropical planet Scarif?

The Maldives' Laamu Atoll supplied the real islands, while a former RAF airfield in Hertfordshire stood in for other parts of the same tropical planet.

Which English airfield's airship sheds held the Rebel base set for Rogue One and 1977's Star Wars?

Cardington was home to the R101, whose crash ended British airship building; its vast sheds later became film stages and housed the Rebel hangar twice.

Which actor returned to voice Darth Vader in Rogue One?

James Earl Jones supplied the voice while two performers shared the suit: Spencer Wilding for the meeting with Krennic and Daniel Naprous for the final rampage.

Alexandre Desplat left Rogue One to score which 2017 science-fiction film instead?

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets took priority once Rogue One's reshoots delayed post-production, leaving his replacement about a month to write the score.

How do Jyn and Cassian meet their end on Scarif?

Engulfed by the Death Star's blast: Tarkin orders the citadel destroyed, and the pair embrace on the beach as the shockwave arrives.

What did Alan Tudyk wear on the Rogue One set to match the towering height of Cassian Andor's droid?

Tall stilts added 13 inches to his height, and he found them so hard to take off that he wore them on bathroom breaks.

Saw Gerrera, the extremist who raised Jyn in Rogue One, takes his name from which real revolutionary?

Che Guevara's name is echoed in the character's, a rebel George Lucas first created for a live-action television series that was never made.

Which actor, Wicket the Ewok in Return of the Jedi, plays fighter Weeteef Cyubee in Rogue One?

Warwick Davis has played more than a dozen Star Wars characters, yet Weeteef Cyubee was his first to carry a blaster.

How do Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor die at the end of Rogue One, embracing on a Scarif beach?

A Death Star blast ordered by Grand Moff Tarkin destroys the Scarif citadel, and the same shot vaporises Orson Krennic, the man who oversaw the weapon.

Which giant-monster reboot did the director of Rogue One make immediately before his Star Wars film?

Godzilla was his first studio blockbuster, a job he won after making the independent film Monsters almost single-handedly, down to its effects shots.

Rogue One's director treated the story as which genre, a deliberate break from Star Wars tradition?

A war film was the brief, and the look of its battles leans on Korean and Vietnam War imagery where the 1977 original echoed the Second World War.

The battle scenes of Rogue One reminded film critic Mark Kermode of which Second World War invasion?

The Normandy landings came to mind in his four-star review, which also argued that a standalone story let the final act raise the dramatic stakes.

After the Rogue One teaser trailer, The Daily Telegraph described Jyn Erso as a heroine in the style of whom?

Han Solo was the paper's comparison, and that teaser drew nearly 30 million views in its first 29 hours.

How does Jyn Erso get the Death Star plans off Scarif at the climax of Rogue One?

Jyn beams them to the fleet moments before the Death Star arrives over Scarif, and the Rebel flagship then passes them to a smaller ship that escapes.

Which pair of droids makes a brief cameo at the Rebel base on Yavin 4 in Rogue One?

C-3PO and R2-D2 turn up briefly, with Anthony Daniels reprising the protocol droid while his co-star inside the astromech goes uncredited.

Which visual effects studio made Rogue One's digital characters, including its recreated Grand Moff Tarkin?

Industrial Light & Magic mapped a digital mask over a stand-in actor to return Grand Moff Tarkin to the story, with the late star's estate advising on small adjustments.

Rogue One was the first entry in which series of Star Wars films set between the main episodes?

Anthology films were described by a studio executive as origin stories, and were developed in parallel with the sequel trilogy.

Rogue One was the second-highest-grossing film of 2016 worldwide, behind which superhero sequel?

Captain America: Civil War finished ahead of it, and both came from one parent company, the first studio to land five releases above $300 million at home in a single year.

Which publisher adapted Rogue One as a six-part illustrated miniseries with added scenes?

Marvel Comics also printed a one-shot about how Cassian Andor met his droid, a story the later television series chose to overwrite.

Who showed Carrie Fisher the digital version of her younger self made for Rogue One's final scene?

Kathleen Kennedy reported that Fisher loved the shot, a warmer verdict than those of critics who called the effect plastic and unsettling.

Which Mon Calamari admiral commands the Rebel ships in the battle above Scarif in Rogue One?

Raddus has little patience for the Rebel council's endless meetings, holding that military muscle rather than stirring speeches will beat the Empire.

Which Rebel blockade runner flees with the Death Star plans in the last moments of Rogue One?

Tantive IV is the same ship Darth Vader captures above Tatooine at the start of the 1977 film, so the two stories join almost shot to shot.

Which actor returns from the Star Wars prequels to play Senator Bail Organa in Rogue One?

Jimmy Smits first played Princess Leia's adoptive father in Attack of the Clones, and returned to the part again in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series.

What name is given to the elite black-armoured soldiers who guard Orson Krennic in Rogue One?

Death troopers make their first appearance in Rogue One as soldiers of Imperial Intelligence, wearing classified armour coated to defeat enemy sensors.

Which original-trilogy starfighter ace is heard over the Yavin 4 intercom in Rogue One but never seen?

Wedge Antilles was deliberately kept out of the Scarif battle, because in the 1977 film he reacts to the Death Star as though seeing it for the first time.

The AT-ACT walkers introduced in Rogue One, taller than a standard AT-AT, were designed for which job?

Hauling freight around Imperial construction sites is their role, so each has a hollow midsection that holds a container, yet the armour shrugs off most handheld weapons.

Which Rebel troop transport, conceived as a Star Wars answer to the Huey helicopter, debuts in Rogue One?

U-wing gunships ferry the ground troops to Scarif, and the final design won out partly because it looked like an X-wing turned upside down.

Rogue One cinematographer Greig Fraser later won an Oscar for shooting which science-fiction film?

Dune brought him the award, years after he shot Rogue One on large-format digital cameras fitted with Ultra Panavision 70 lenses.

The replacement composer of Rogue One started work almost immediately after scoring which superhero film?

Doctor Strange was barely finished when he began, and the Star Wars music was then recorded with a 110-piece orchestra and an 80-voice choir.

In Rogue One, which tentacled mind-reading creature does Saw Gerrera set upon the Imperial defector?

Bor Gullet is an octopus-like creature that Saw Gerrera uses because he suspects the message from Galen Erso is a trick.

Which signature Star Wars editing device, used between scenes in the saga films, did Rogue One leave out?

Screen wipes link the scenes of the Skywalker saga episodes, and dropping them was one of the ways the director set his standalone story apart.

In the first draft of the Rogue One script, Jyn Erso commanded the squad while holding which Rebel rank?

Sergeant Jyn Erso led the team in that draft, and the spy who became Cassian Andor was written as one of the soldiers under her command.

Variety compared the second Rogue One teaser to which Vietnam War epic?

Apocalypse Now was the comparison because the footage stressed full-scale battle sequences, and it was first screened only for fans at a London convention.

Which Chinese actor, the director of Let the Bullets Fly, plays the mercenary Baze Malbus in Rogue One?

Jiang Wen plays a native of Jedha drawn into the war against the Empire, and at home he is as well known for directing Devils on the Doorstep.

A Rogue One play set was planned for which toys-to-life video game before the series was cancelled?

Disney Infinity was cancelled before the set could ship, and the film's console tie-in was a Scarif expansion for a multiplayer shooter.

Which starship from the animated series Star Wars Rebels is glimpsed on Yavin 4 in Rogue One?

The Ghost is parked near the Great Temple on Yavin 4, and its owner, Hera Syndulla, gets a brief mention in the film.

Which Mon Calamari star cruiser serves as the Rebel flagship in the battle over Scarif in Rogue One?

Profundity began as a civic governance tower on the Mon Calamari homeworld, and was refitted for war when its people fled the planet.

Which accent did Alan Tudyk choose for Cassian Andor's droid in Rogue One to suit its Imperial origins?

English won out over the American and mid-Atlantic voices he also auditioned, and he made it formal and proper because the speaker is a droid.

What name is given to Saw Gerrera's band of extremist fighters on Jedha in Rogue One?

The Partisans stand apart from the Rebel Alliance, which wants no part of their commander's violent tactics.

What does the Death Star destroy in its first test-firing, ordered by Orson Krennic in Rogue One?

A holy city on Jedha is wiped out, and Grand Moff Tarkin congratulates Krennic before using a security breach as his pretext to take over the station.

At which trading outpost does Cassian Andor meet a Rebel informant early in Rogue One?

Kafrene is where the informant tells him that an Imperial defector is carrying word of a planet-destroying weapon, the news that sets the plot moving.

Which video game software was adapted so Rogue One's crew could watch Cassian Andor's droid on set?

Unreal Engine 4 rendered the character in real time during a scene, the first time the studio could work with a digital creation in the moment.

Which Beth Revis novel covers the years of Jyn Erso's life that Rogue One skips after its prologue?

Rebel Rising follows her from her mother's death to the day Alliance agents free her from a labour camp, including the years she spends with Saw Gerrera.

Rogue One's digital Tarkin drew on a life mask of the late actor made for which 1984 spoof comedy?

Top Secret! had required a cast of his face decades earlier, and a scan of it was combined with archive footage to map a 3D mask onto a stand-in.

In what form does Galen Erso's message reach Saw Gerrera on Jedha in Rogue One?

A hologram recorded for his daughter carries the news that he has planted a weakness in the Death Star, but the recording is left behind in the escape from Jedha.

Galen Erso's sabotage in Rogue One explains which weak spot that Luke Skywalker targets in the 1977 film?

An exhaust vent leading straight to the reactor core is the weak spot, and Rogue One answers a question that had nagged fans since 1977 by making it one man's deliberate act.

In the backstory of Rogue One, what was Orson Krennic to Galen Erso before forcing him back to work?

A close friend of the scientist for years, Krennic once rescued the Erso family from a coup and later turned Galen's research into a weapon.

The Danish star who plays Galen Erso in Rogue One led an NBC drama as which fictional serial killer?

Hannibal Lecter was a part he hesitated to take, believing Anthony Hopkins had already played the character to perfection.

What is the name of Galen Erso's wife, who dies confronting Orson Krennic at the start of Rogue One?

Lyra was a geologist who had helped with her husband's early research, deeply distrusted Krennic and tried to pass her faith in the Force to Jyn.

Which code name does the Empire use for the Death Star project that Galen Erso sabotages in Rogue One?

Stardust was a hungry project: in the Rebels series a rival programme for a new TIE fighter faces closure so that its resources can go to Krennic's station.

Galen Erso's sabotage led one reviewer to call Rogue One a story about the ethics of which profession?

Engineering is the heart of the film, the reviewer wrote, because its core ethical arc is one man designing the Death Star so that it can be stopped.

In Rogue One, why does Mon Mothma want Galen Erso extracted from the Empire alive?

To testify to the Senate about the Death Star's existence was her plan, which collapses when Alliance bombers strike his research base and Galen is fatally wounded.

In the Rogue One backstory, Galen Erso's research was meant to enhance what before it was weaponised?

Energy yields were the goal he was coerced into pursuing, and Orson Krennic then turned the breakthrough into the Death Star's superlaser.

According to the Rogue One prequel novel, where is Galen Erso when his daughter Jyn is born?

In a prison on the planet Vallt, where a coup had swept up the neutral scientist; Krennic then freed the family by posing as a company representative.

Film critic Mark Kermode likened Jyn Erso of Rogue One to which earlier science-fiction action heroine?

Ellen Ripley as she appears in Aliens was his comparison, in a review that also praised the diversity of the cast.