While buzz is only increasing for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story as we get closer to its theatrical release, one of the main narratives surrounding the film continues to be the reshoots that the film underwent earlier this year. We've been hearing stories for months about the involvement of screenwriter Tony Gilroy, and director Gareth Edwards has even gone on record to explain what went down and what happened. A new piece of trivia that we recently picked up, however, is that the reshoots also allowed actor Alan Tudyk to have some creative input on the movie as well, given the opportunity to punch up some of K-2SO's scenes in the blockbuster.
Alan Tudyk himself told me about his work on the Rogue One reshoots earlier this month when I had the pleasure of sitting down with him for a one-on-one interview during the recent Star Wars press day in Los Angeles. During our conversation, I asked how both he and K-2SO were affected by the reshoots, and he explained that while there weren't massive changes made, he did get the chance to contribute to the process and write a few new lines for his character. Said Tudyk,
Yeah, there was some fun stuff. I got to write a couple of lines. You know, because they were reshoots, some of the scenes were less, but, and this is not to say that all of them by any stretch, there were little pieces where they're saying 'What would K-2 say in this moment?' I got a few of those.
While many know Alan Tudyk for his work in front of the camera -- from Wash in Firefly to Steve The Pirate in Dodgeball - those who follow his work closely know that he has been doing some behind the scenes work in recent years. Specifically, he created his own show Con Man, which just started its second season on Comic-Con HQ last week. Because of this, it makes all the sense in the world that Gareth Edwards and company would trust him to write a few bits of dialogue for his new droid character.
Speaking to the Rogue One reshoots on a more macro level, Alan Tudyk also told me that some of the stuff that was done after principal photography wound up being some of the best material in the film -- with the actor/writer/director giving high praise to the work from Tony Gilroy. What makes it funny, however, is that he didn't know about all of the work that was done until recently when he had the chance to see the finished cut of the Star Wars movie for himself:
We shot a lot of stuff and some of my favorite scenes are the ones that Tony Gilroy wrote. What a great writer. A great writer. I know the scenes that I did in reshoots. I didn't know the other reshoots, the other scenes that were tweaked in reshoots - and so seeing it the other night, I got the full impact of his influence on the movie and it was extraordinary and has made it into what it is.
For now, the exact details of what went into the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story reshoots remain a mystery, but Alan Tudyk does certainly make it sound like all of the changes that were made for the betterment of the film. We'll have to wait and see if we ever get official word on precisely what went down -- but for now, be sure to stay tuned here on Cinema Blend for a whole lot more from our interviews with the cast and filmmakers behind the blockbuster, and get ready for the film's release this Friday, December 16th!
