The first one we announced internally was Solo, and I got so excited about where these spinoff films could go, because the possibilities were endless. What we also announced then that I was really intrigued by were the spinoff films. Well, flash-forward to 2012 after Lucasfilm’s acquisition by The Walt Disney Company, where George selected Kathleen Kennedy to lead Lucasfilm, and our announcement of the continuation of the Skywalker Saga. John Knoll works on a miniature of Sheev Palpatine’s private viewing box in the Galaxies Opera House on Coruscant in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. I started thinking about all of the interesting tales you could tell in a show like that, and one of the first things that popped into my head was, “what about a Mission: Impossible-style operation to break into the most secure facility that the Galactic Empire had to steal the plans for the Death Star?” I started toying with that idea, along with a few others, and I approached Rick again to learn more about the time period they wanted to set the show in, and I realized that none of my ideas would apply to that period, so I shelved it. I started chatting to Rick McCallum who was producing the film, and he mentioned that he and George Lucas were developing a Star Wars live-action TV series, and that they were working on scripts. I was on set when we were shooting in Sydney, and I think we were waiting for some set-up to happen. I started thinking about this all the way back on Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.

How long back had you been thinking of this idea before it was greenlit? John, the whole idea of Rogue One started with you.

Industrial Light & Magic’s Publicity Group sits down with John Knoll, Executive Creative Director at ILM, and the Senior Visual Effects Supervisor on Rogue One: A Story Wars Story to discuss the film’s five-year anniversary. John Knoll in the cockpit of a crashed Partisan X-wing fighter on Jedha from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Star wars a rogue one runtime