It's hard to capture lightning in a bottle once, and almost impossible to do it twice, but that's exactly what Disney hopes to achieve when Star Wars: Rogue One releases this year.
However, the company is now so worried about the potential success or failure of that movie that reports suggest that it ordered expensive reshoots for parts of the film.
Page Six spoke with several unnamed sources and confirmed that the reshoots will take place this summer. It seems that Disney isn't completely happy with the first cut of the movie and wants to make some changes to make it better.
"The execs at Disney are not happy with the movie, and Rogue One will have to go back into four weeks of expensive reshoots in July," one source said.
So, what does this mean? It's probably nothing, but the pressure is on for Disney to repeat the success of last year's Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which quickly became one of the biggest movies of all time. It's likely that no Star Wars film released after that can match that level of success, but fans will expect films in that universe to have the same quality look and feel as The Force Awakens.
Rogue One won't have many familiar characters either, so the stakes are even higher for it to make bank at the box office. The movie stars Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso and features events that take place before the first movie of the original trilogy, Star Wars: A New Hope. The story follows a band of rebel fighters intent on stealing the plans for the Death Star.
Rumors recently suggested that Rogue One will have a darker tone than A Force Awakens, particularly since Darth Vader could appear in it. Could the reshoots lighten up the film or make it darker? Sources stated that the movie didn't test well, but there are no details about why.
"The filmmaking team and the studio always anticipated additional shooting and second unit work to make the film the absolute best it can be, and the actors were aware there would be additional shooting," another Disney source said. "Coming off The Force Awakens, there's an incredibly high bar for this movie and we have a responsibility to the franchise and to the fans to deliver the best possible movie we can."
Star Wars: Rogue One lands in theaters on Dec. 16.
