Director Gareth Edwards reveals secrets about Rogue One ending

A scene from the climatic battle in Rogue One

Spoiler warning: the following contains key details about the plot of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Still recovering from Rogue One? Director Gareth Edwards has finally broken his silence about his Star Wars film's shock ending, revealing just how he managed to get away with killing off his entire cast in one fell swoop. He also addressed those meddling reshoot rumours, which puzzled and concerned fans for months, along with sparking a minor alt-right riot.

Speaking to the Empire Film Podcast, in an episode that was subsequently pulled after being published too early, Edwards revealed that Disney and Lucasfilm put up no barriers when it came to the film's ending - surprising even him.

"I think there was an early version [of the screenplay] - the very first version they didn't [die] in. And it was just assumed by us that we couldn't [kill the cast] and they're not gonna let us do that.

"So we're trying to figure out how this ends where that doesn't happen. And then everyone read that [original screenplay], and there was just this feeling of like, 'They gotta die, right?' And everyone was like, 'Yeah, can we?'

"And we thought we weren't gonna be allowed to, but Kathy [Kennedy, the producer]and everyone at Disney were like, 'Yeah, makes sense.'"

But Edwards confessed that he wasn't confident that the studio heads wouldn't change their minds.

"I kept waiting for someone to go, 'You know what, can you just film an extra scene where we see Jyn and Cassian, they're okay, and they're on another planet...' And [that] never, ever came. No one gave us that note, so we got to do it."

He also joked about Rogue One breaking the mould when it came to on-screen misery in the Mouse House: "It's a great Disney tradition, isn't it? For every single character to die in all their movies."

In the same interview, he also talked about the much-discussed Rogue One reshoots, along with footage present in some of the early trailers that was absent from the film itself - notably the shot of Jyn facing the camera with lights flickering on behind her, and her declaration of 'I rebel'.

Felicity Jones in one of the deleted scenes from Rogue One

"There was a bit of a process to refining the third act in terms of specific shots and moments, and certain things just fell away," Edwards said. "What happened was marketing loved those shots and said, 'Oh, we've got to use that.' And you say, 'Well, it's not in the movie,' and they said 'It's okay. It's what marketing does, we just use the best of whatever you've done'."

Conceding to Disney, Edwards ultimately had no problem with the promotional use of excised footage.

"I know that's not in the film, but the spirit of it is in the film."

Rogue One's bleak ending hasn't yet seemed to turn off audiences. The film continues to dominate the worldwide box office, having grossed nearly US $300 million in less than a week.