Director Gareth Edwards had to sneak away from the ‘Godzilla’ set to take a meeting about making ‘Rogue One’. The British filmmaker rebooted the popular kaiju franchise for Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. in 2014, making what would become the first film of their ongoing ‘MonsterVerse’ series. He then went on to direct the standalone film ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Stor’y, which released in 2016 to both critical acclaim and financial success.
‘Star Wars’ fans have been largely critical about the way the film franchise has been handled since Disney bought Lucasfilm, with the sequel trilogy proving extremely divisive, but appreciation for Rogue One emerged as a rare point of common ground. The film was set in the direct lead-up to the events of A New Hope and depicted the team of Rebels who succeeded in stealing the Empire's plans for the Death Star that eventually come into Princess Leia's possession. While reviews of it at the time were dimmed a little by the fanfare that met ‘The Force Awakens’ the year before, fan admiration for it has endured to such an extent that Disney included it among their surprise Disney+ Day theatrical screenings.
According to a retrospective interview with StarWars.com, Edwards needed a little subterfuge to secure the Star Wars gig. Describing himself as a massive fan of the franchise who never believed he'd actually win the job, he was set on taking the meeting with Lucasfilm's Kiri Hart, which was occurring before the title for J. J. Abrams' trilogy starter had even been announced. But, Edwards says, he happened to still be working on ‘Godzilla’ at the time, and though the walk from WB to Disney was not far, he was worried to tell anyone about the meeting because of the chance he'd be invited back for a ‘MonsterVerse’ sequel.
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