Exactly five years ago this month, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story debuted in theaters around the world. This was the first Star Wars “anthology” film – a big-screen live-action release that did not market itself as an episode as the other films before it had. Director Gareth Edwards made an amazing film. But he almost didn’t think he’d get the job at all.
In a recent interview with StarWars.com, Edwards revealed that he was hesitant to even meet with the studio about possibly making a Star Wars movie. But it’s easy to sneak away on a quick lunch break when you’re already working close to the executives’ offices.
“I remember when I first met with Kiri Hart at the very beginning of it all, just snuck in for a very secretive meeting,” Edwards said. “At the time I was finishing Godzilla, and they were at Disney, and you can walk from Warner Bros. to Disney in about 10 minutes. I was nervous about telling anyone that I was going for a meeting at Lucasfilm, because if things went well I’d be doing the Godzilla sequel, and so I pretended I had to get some food or something. I just went down and met with Kiri Hart down the road.”
At first, Edwards didn’t even think he had a shot at becoming a Star Wars filmmaker. Something like that has to be extremely competitive, right? It turned out Edwards had been in the running the whole time – he just didn’t know it.
“I figured, they’re talking to maybe 20 filmmakers and I’m one of them, so I probably won’t even make the cut …at one point I thought, I’m just going to ask the question just for my own peace of mind. I said, ‘How many other filmmakers and directors are you talking to about this?’ And they were like, ‘Oh, none.'”
Imposter syndrome. It really gets to the best of us, doesn’t it?
Which film director do you think should direct a Star Wars movie next?