Resurrecting this dead thread of mine due to Andor. There have been some already solid Rogue One fan edits since the movie has been released, but I have really been loving Andor, so it has given me some ideas for taking the film in a different direction than the edits currently available. If quality of the show stays the same right up until the end of the series, I would like to re-edit Rogue One to act as a new finale for the series, rather than a standalone film.
At this moment I don’t really know if I would keep it as a movie-length finale, or split it into two episodes perhaps. But it would start with the Andor title card rather than have the “Rogue One” title card or an opening crawl, like some edits have given it.
Some of the edits I have proposed in the past regarding the plot and characterization will still be pursued in this version as well, such as making Jyn a more active protagonist as well as making the initial mission just be about rescuing the pilot rather than finding her father.
I also have an interest in minimizing the films contradictions with A New Hope. For example, I want to depict the plan transmissions being “beamed” to the Tantive IV rather than being carried into the ship. That means I would likely remove the Darth Vader hallway scene. I do feel my adrenaline pumping when I watch that scene, but I think it might work better, at least for this version, to cut it. I do think it is kind of weird to depict Vader in this modern, epic, and badass way, but it almost clashes with the way he is depicted in A New Hope. It is pretty toned down in comparison. I like the idea of watching all of Andor, then Rogue One, then the Original Trilogy. With that in mind, I think I would prefer to have Vader mentioned in Rogue One, and maybe see the back of his head as he stands on the bridge of the Devastator at the end of the film, but that is it. In that shot, I would change create new off-screen dialogue for the Imperial Officer speaking to Vader saying, “Sir, their flagship is disabled, but they’re sending transmissions to another ship.” I might rework some Vader dialogue to have him respond with, “Calculate every possible destination along their trajectory”. But if I wanted to have Vader’s first dialogue to be in A New Hope, I could just have the officer say they are tracking it.
My mind might change on this though. If I kept it, I might not have the rebel explicitly tell the other rebel to “take it”, so Vader might not be aware that a hand off is even happening. I also would not have Vader watch the Tantive IV fly away himself probably. But like I said, I might cut the whole scene entirely.
I also think it depends on what is depicted in the last season of Andor, as well. I just like the idea of having a nice flow between Andor, Rogue One, and A New Hope. Because of that, I might do some rescoring, when possible, to introduce some Andor cues into Rogue One, and then have it transition into Giacchino’s score, and then into Williams. I think Nicholas Britell’s score in Andor fits well with the cold, modern tone of the story, whereas Giacchino’s is kind of a middle ground between that and the optimistic romance of Williams’ classical score of the original Star Wars. So the score goes from a more pessimistic synthetic vibe to a more hopeful fantasy feel as we get to the more optimistic space opera of the original trilogy, if that makes sense.
I want this to function as a nice transition between Andor and A New Hope, so if anyone has other ideas for how I can make Rogue One match the tone and “canon” of both the series and SW 77, feel free to share. Anyway, I don’t plan on working on this much beyond brain storming ideas until Andor is complete. I might try to play around with my Return of the Jedi edit more in the meantime, but I just wanted to post my ideas here for reference once I get around to it.