Gareth Edwards, the director of Rogue One: A Star Wars story has a lot to say about the villains of the movie, USA Today reports. He dished the dirt on the movie's antagonist, Orson Krennic. He also talked about what it was like to work with the Darth Vader.
Edwards revealed a little of Krennic's background. Krennic is the Imperial Officer in charge of the Death Troopers and the advanced weapons research wing of the militaty. Edwards made the concious choice for him to not have a upper-class background, in contrast to most of the Empire's head honchos, so he vetoed it when Krennic's actor, Ben Mendelsohn, asked if he should do an upper-class English accent for the role.
"It feels like if the Empire ever have a job vacancy, they go to the Royal Shakespeare Company to headhunt people," Edwards said "I like the idea that Ben's character was much more working-class and rose in the ranks through sheer force of personality and ideas." But apparently Krennic's having difficulty rising all the way to the top. According to Edwards he "hits a brick wall in the hierarchy where they won't let him in the club and it's going to turn into a them-or-us situation: either Krennic or Tarkin and the others."
Edwards discussed working with Darth Vader who is voiced by James Earl Jones once more. He's used sparingly in the film, but apparently causes great excitement whenever he's on set. "It's like we're at the playground again and there's this hero sort of standing there," Edwards says. "You end up very respectful of him: Even though you know there's a guy inside the outfit, you still talk to him like he's Vader."
Overall, Edwards seems incredibly excited to be doing this film. When talking about filming scenes with Vader, he said Mendelsohn called him over in the middle of the take. "He went, ‘It's Darth Vader. We filmed with Darth Vader,' " Edward says. "And I was like,‘I know. It's amazing, isn't it?' It was like no one wanted to admit that they're having a little fanboy freak-out but everyone did. It's impossible not to. He's so iconic."
I think the news about Krennic's lower-class background is an interesting bit of world-building. I wonder if it will be touched on in the film. What do you think? And are you as pumped about more Darth Vader as Edwards is?
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