Star Wars: 10 Things Rogue One Did Best
5. Fanservice
Gareth Edwards is such a Star Wars fanboy that he once took food dye with him on holiday to Tunisia so he could drink Blue Milk in Luke Skywalker’s house. I think we all knew what we were in for when he took this job.
Some of Rogue One’s cameos were a bit in your face like Ponda Baba and Dr Evazan (yes, I am a massive nerd if that wasn’t obvious already) popping up on Jedha, but a lot more of them work really well. It’s fanservice helping the film instead of the other way round.
Among other things, Gareth Edwards and Lucasfilm made full use of the incredibly fortunate timing of the movie. Ten years after Revenge Of The Sith, Genevieve O’Reilly (Mon Mothma) and Jimmy Smits (Bail Organa) were the perfect age to reprise their roles onscreen, while some actors from the Original Trilogy like James Earl Jones and Angus MacInnes (Gold Leader) were still able to make voice cameos.
But the best part of these nods to the other films is that, in some cases, they’re actually used to improve the film. Darth Vader’s final scene is pretty much pure fanservice but it not only improves the image of Darth Vader, but also bridges the gap to A New Hope as much as is humanly possible.