Tony Gilroy has a lot to say about Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and his recent comments about the state of the film before he stepped in reveal he wasn't a fan of the original cut.
Via ScreenRant, Gilroy was on the Happy.Sad.Confused podcast, where he didn't hold back about his opinion of the movie's original cut. According to Gilroy, "Rogue One, it was like, ‘There’s a corpse on the table, what are you gonna do? Could someone come in and save it?' It doesn’t help to be a fan, at that point.” It's been reported for years that Rogue One was in trouble and Tony Gilroy was brought in for reshoots. He's credited as a screenwriter for it. Although Gareth Edwards has never commented on what happened behind the scenes, Gilroy has been vocal about how bad it was before his reshoots.
Gareth Edwards is credited as the director of the film, and Gilroy's comments are quite disrespectful towards Edwards. Almost everyone has praised Gilroy's writing for Andor, and while it's not clear which Rogue One scenes were the result of Gilroy's work, everyone gives him credit for Rogue One as well. In light of all the love Rogue One has gotten over the past 9 years, as well as its success at the box office, it's harsh for Gilroy to call it a corpse.
Tony Gilroy calls ROGUE ONE “a corpse” of a movie before he was brought in to oversee reshoots and edits
— Star Wars Holocron (@sw_holocron) June 11, 2025
“Rogue [One] it was like, ‘There’s a corpse on the table, what are you gonna do? Could someone come in and save it?'"
(Source: https://t.co/fQIIxkhP72) pic.twitter.com/bIy4zYj3p2
Although Rogue One had good writing, the movie is also widely praised for its beautiful cinematography and direction. It has some of the most visually inspiring and stunning shots in Star Wars. Its theatrical trailer includes multiple scenes that were cut from the movie, but the trailer sparked fan interest due to how beautifully shot these scenes were. Gareth Edwards is largely responsible for much of how the movie turned out, so Gilroy's comments are out of line.
Regardless, Gilroy's dislike of Rogue One before he "saved" it has sparked my curiosity for its director's cut. I'd love to see the movie before Tony Gilroy worked on it. It may have had a few issues, but I doubt it was the corpse Gilroy thinks it was. I think it would be great if Rogue One's deleted scenes are released next year for its 10th anniversary. It would be a nice way to showcase Gareth's original vision for the movie, even if these scenes won't be considered canon.
Gilroy recently told Collider that he altered the elevator scene between Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor near the end of the movie. His comments seem to suggest the scene was cut in a way to remove any hints of romance between them. Even though Andor is all about Cassian and Bix's love story, I'd love to see the elevator scene before it was edited.
Aside from the elevator scene, there are more shots of the quest to steal the Death Star plans on Scarif, and Cassian and Jyn running on the Scarif beach with the plans. I'm not sure if we'll ever get to see the deleted scenes, but I'll never believe the movie was as bad as Tony Gilroy thinks it was.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is streaming on Disney+.