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It’s no secret that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story underwent major reshoots and according to actor Ben Mendelsohn, there’s enough footage for a completely new movie.
Mendelsohn, who plays Director Orson Krennic, told Collider they shot each scene about three or four times, with each take focusing on a different angle. Although director Gareth Edwards knew what he wanted to do with the plot and characters, the steps he took to get there changed often, and that’s why he wanted different takes.
“We did have multiple, multiple ways of going at any given scenario, we had multiple readings of it,” Mendelsohn said. “So should they ever decide to, there would be a wealth of ways of approaching these different things. And I know from having seen sort of the crucial kind of scenes throughout it, I know there’s vastly different readings of at least four of those scenes.”
When asked if there was enough footage to create a full-length alternate version of Rogue One, Mendelsohn said there was, “with enormous differences within I would’ve said 20 or 30 of the scenes.”
The actor added that there were moments when he was watching the final cut of the film that caught him off guard because he didn’t expect Edwards to go with that particular rendition of the scene. Mendelsohn added that the times he found himself surprised, he was pleased with the decision Edwards went in.
“And there were a couple of times I was like, ‘Oh wow! He went with that. That one, yeah. Ok, I get it,’” he said.
In an interview with Vulture earlier this month, Edwards said the team had always planned to do “pickup shoots.” As filming progresses, he realized the scope of what they were filming was bigger than originally imagined, which led to a “divide-and-conquer mentality.”
“I think the results are really good and that's all that matters, is the movie,” Edwards said.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is currently playing in theaters.