Ever since Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012, it’s fair to say the company has given fans a lot more from the galaxy far, far away, and there’s a lot more upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows where that came from. Most would agree the Disney Star Wars era has been a mixed bag, but more and more over the years, fans continue to praise Rogue One: Star Wars Story as one of the greats. But what does director Gareth Edwards think about this?
While the love for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story went from a simmer to a hard boil over the years, especially since Andor Season 2 gave us some top tier Star Wars television, here’s what the movie’s director recently said when Business Insider pointed out his movie frequently being called the best Star Wars movie Disney has put out:
I don’t agree with it, but I appreciate it. I’m very grateful that people say nice things.
Gareth Edwards didn’t share what he thinks the best Disney Star Wars movie is outside his own, but he did share some interesting thoughts about how he handles the discourse around his movies. As he continued:
What you have to keep in your pocket as you go through making other films is that it’s not about how people feel the day it gets released, it’s how people feel about it 10, 20 years from now.
Now this is a great way to handle being a major filmmaker. When a movie is coming out, there are so many factors that can make it seem like a failure despite the quality of something. At the end of the day, there have been tons of classics that were either box office failures or critically panned at the time of their release.
Rogue One wasn’t either of those things. It earned $1.06 billion worldwide following its December 2016 release, and earned a very positive 84% score on Rotten Tomatoes. However, Edwards’ 2023 followup, an original science fiction film called The Creator, bombed at the box office with a $104 million worldwide haul and mixed reviews. He also said this:
When you make a movie, you’re living at least a year from now, you’re trying to imagine what it’s like, all these decisions you’re making, what they are going to be like a year from now when this movie is released, what’s the audience going to think?
Regarding Star Wars, Gareth Edwards also said he’s “very happy to move on and do my own thing” outside the franchise, even though he’ll “never stop loving that trilogy.” As his comments continued:
And as the movie comes out, you go, ‘I’m going to pretend I’m living 10 years from now, and it doesn’t matter what people say in the moment.’ It’s the kid who comes up to you 20 years from now and goes, ‘Oh my god, I loved that movie!’ I think that’s the reward.
Rogue One is approaching its 10-year anniversary next year, and it appears it’ll be in good shape. Gareth Edwards’ latest movie is the new Jurassic World movie Rebirth starring Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey and Mahershala Ali. He’s called the movie a return to the Jurassic Park roots. You can see it in theaters on July 2.
