Rogue One Director & Cinematographer on Darth Vader’s Massive Impact

With Rogue One: A Star Wars Story now available on Blu-ray, there’s a lot of fun extras that are finding their way online. We just shared with you this great video about the creation of the U-Wing. Rogue One production designer Doug Chiang explained how, after 781 attempts, his team nailed down the design and a new, iconic Star Wars ship was born.

Now Lucasfilm and Walt Disney Pictures have shared a new video on “The Darth Vader Effect.” Here the cast and crew of Rogue One discuss how the legendary Sith Lord’s presence affected the film.

“As you soon as you put him in a scene, that’s all you want to see,” says director Gareth Edwards. “It’s really hard to come back from that.” Knowing that the moment you bring Darth Vader into the film, fans are going to want him to stick around, Edwards decided on deploying the most legendary villain of all time strategically, with a first appearance deep into the film and then a second—and one of the best uses of Vader of all time—right at the end. In fact, cinematographer Greig Fraser explains that the door Vader comes through in the end is the same door he comes through at the beginning of Star Wars: A New Hope.

See how Edwards and his team dealt with having Vader in their back pocket.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDS0pUFaY_k