Credit: Lucasfilm
A big question Star Wars fans have been asking, even weeks after Rogue One‘s release, has been: Why the heck was Princess Leia at the Battle of Scarif? Luckily, a few experts from the Lucasfilm Story Group have cleared the air.
Star Wars expert Pablo Hidalgo and company appeared on a recent episode of The Star Wars Show, mentioned late last week. They were asked why Leia’s consular ship, Tantive IV, appeared at the end of the film, directly connecting Rogue One to Star Wars IV: A New Hope. Turns out, it’s because she and Admiral Raddus got sidetracked during their already scheduled trip to Tatooine to pick up Obi-Wan Kenobi.
“The plan was always that Leia was going to go to Tatooine to pick up Obi-Wan and Raddus was going to escort her,” Hidalgo said. “Then the news of Scarif came in, and that was deemed more important … [because] it’s the one warship that they have at this point.”
Hidalgo said Raddus was accompanying Leia because she was the “public face of the cause,” and they needed to keep her safe so she could continue getting them supplies. The ship’s inclusion itself was explained in the Rogue One novelization; Tantive IV remained on Raddus’ warship, as opposed to staying on Yavin or flying solo, because it was undergoing some repairs. That could be why it was unable to outrun the Star Destroyer — other than the fact that it’s, you know, a Star Destroyer.
Another little interesting tidbit shared was that Leia was actually on Yavin the whole time the Tatooine trip and Jyn Erso’s rebellion were being planned. Hidaldo said they kept Leia’s presence a secret because the movie wanted to “save the reveal,” but Leland Chee added that they added R2D2 and C3PO’s cameos as a clue.
Comments
18 responses to “Ah, So That’s Why Leia Was At The Battle Of Scarif In Rogue One”
Wow, I know most of us have seen it but way to spoil that Leia is in Rouge One for those that haven’t seen it.
It was already so spoiled by the countless cgi leia discussions that I didn’t even realise that anyone considered it a secret.
Yep, I just had it spoiled. Currently hard to get to the cinema with an 11 month old baby. Tried getting to the drive in but all screenings started at 11pm 🙁
All the CGI conversations I figured were to do with Star Wars 9
I know it’s annoying but take it from someone who’s seen the film it’s not really a spoiler, assuming you’ve seen A New Hope.
Her being in is just the tie in to the other movies it’s not really that plot important.
It’s been weird with this movie, there was another article that at the time made me think the headline was a huge spoiler… Turns out it was a bit misleading in that it only seemed like a spoiler if you hadn’t seen the movie yet, everyone who had could immediately realise it had pretty much nothing to do with the plot 😛
The video is title Rogue One Secrets Explained. If you dont want secrets dont watch.
Yeah but the title of the Kotaku article says right away that Leia is in Rogue One.
Its been out for a while. Get with the times
In fairness is has been just over two months since the film came out. Considering the plot of the film and how it fits in to the franchise it’s not even much of a spoiler to note that Leia is in it.
Makes sense. I’m glad these little things are getting explained.
This makes more sense now, always seemed stupid that she would go into the middle of a war zone and nearly risk death and being boarded by Vader, just so they could “tie” the movies together
I wonder if the Lucasfilm Story Group can explain how they can reattach lost limbs and grow back organs but a queen can still die in childbirth.
Those other characters hadn’t “lost the will to live”…or some rubbish.
That’s legitimately a way people die; it’s not just a saying somebody randomly made up
Sure, but it was hardly a convincing plot element when used in Star Wars Episode 3. Padme went from quite chipper to that in the space of a few scenes and it was hardly well executed so far as the story went.
That’s not to downplay depression or other emotional issues, just that Star Wars portrait of it was aweful and cringe worthy along with much of the prequels writing.
She died of a broken heart, lost the will to live etc etc
Have you ever noticed that Star Wars medicine is not so much into the reattaching limbs thingo but rather gives everyone a brand new cybernetic limb gizmo? I find this strange?
But then you’ve got to explain why Leia personally went to pick up Obi Wan. The holographic message was more than enough in the end…
Right. Was wondering, because there was that quick scene with Senator Bail Organa, talking about an old Jedi friend, and going off to get it. They kind of left out the bits that joined this scene to Leia going off to get him (That may be covered in the video – Sorry. I can’t watch that at this moment)