Star Wars: Rogue One - New Details On Force Holy Land Revealed
The Jedi Mecca unveiled.
Ahead of a new trailer this week, another detail about a Rogue One planet has been revealed by director Gareth Edwards.
After we previously had a look at the beach planet Scarif, Edwards has now been speaking to Entertainment Weekly about the more desert-like, market-town location we saw in the first trailer. Known as Jedha, it'll be a holy land, a place those who follow the force pilgrimage to. Edwards said:
"The Force is basically in Star Wars like a religion, and they’re losing their faith in the period that we start the movie. We were trying to find a physical location we could go to that would speak to the themes of losing your faith and the choice between letting the Empire win, or evil win, and good prevailing. It got embodied in this place we called Jedha.”
Aside from the Middle-Eastern influences, with this new planet serving as the galaxy's Mecca, there's also the presence of the Empire to deal with on Jedha, who have started occupying the territory for reasons Edwards says they cannot reveal. Although when pressed, he did give a little bit more information:
"There’s something very important in Jedha that serves both the Jedi and the Empire. It felt very much like something we could relate to in the real world.”
The big rumour about what this may be is that Jedha is the home to Kyber crystals, which are used to create lightsabers by both sides of the Force, and more pertinently for this movie, will likely be harnessed to be used to give power to the Death Star's destructive Superlaser. It's not just about the item, though, but also the people of Jedha, with at least one of them proving to be pretty important to the Rebels:
"Within Jedha, even though there’s the oppressive foot of the Empire hanging over them, there’s a resistance that won’t give up and our characters have to go and meet people there to try and secure a person from this group."
Who could that be? A few members of the Rebels hail from Jedha - Donnie Yen's warrior monk, Chirrut; his friend and protector Baze Malbuz (Jiang Weng); and Riz Ahmed's pilot Bodhi Rook, who worked for the Empire but now conspires against them.