Engineer Diarie

How much did the Rogue One reshoots and Tony Gilroy's involvement affect the final film?

Rogue One underwent extensive reshoots back in June 2016 which, as claimed by the production team, is standard procedure. They brought in Gilroy to help out. How much did the final movie differ from Edwards’ original cut that resembled a war film? Are there any details of what was altered?

Unless they deliberately shot footage for the trailers as a misdirection tactic it's clear from the sheer quantity of material in the trailers that didn't end up in the movie that Rogue One changed a lot in post production, reshoots and edits. The interesting question is how much was bolstering elements of plot and character that were there already and how much was patching holes in something that was not entirely working?

Given that they've got a solid commercial, critical and fan hit on their hands I hope we'll get an in-depth and spin free look at the production at some stage. I think it would be fascinating. How different would the movie have been? How much was cut for time and how much for restructuring?

I think it's clear that at one stage Jyn and Cassian escaped the citadel tower with the plans and went elsewhere to transmit them. Maybe back to the Rogue One shuttle. There were shots of Jyn crossing the beach and running through the citadel tower set with the plans in her hand.

(TIE fighter hovering at the end of the gantry in the trailer, but not in the movie)

Almost everything in the final trailer is in the movie but there is a lot in the teaser and first full trailer that was cut. Some iconic moments included:

• Krennic on the beach with his cape trailing in the water — gone.
• Stormtroopers wading through the shallows — gone.
• Jyn in the vault corridor — mostly gone.
• “On your own since the age of 15” — gone.
• “This is a rebellion isn't it? I rebel” — gone.
• Captured rebel pilots on Jedha — gone (leaving an unexplained crashed X-Wing in the background when Chirrut saves Jyn and Cassian).
• “The captain says you are a friend, I will not kill you” — gone.
• “There is a 97.6% chance of failure” — gone.
• TIE fighter hovering at the end of the gantry — gone.
• “The power that we are dealing with here is immeasurable” — gone, along with any suggestion Vader was ever aboard the Death Star.
• It looks like there was originally a longer flashback scene with (bald) Saw Guerrera too.

Pablo Hidalgo said that the ending did not change. Whether that means the “everyone dies” climax of the mission, the Tantive IV’s escape, or both I'm not sure.

I don't think anyone could watch the final cut and claim Disney interfered to tone the movie down. It's very intense and very much a war movie.