Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is the prequel tale revealing how the Rebellion stole those Death Star plans that kick off the events of A New Hope.

But back on Earth, it's the film's director Gareth Edwards who nabbed the blueprints for the Empire's superweapon, and not a single Bothan had to die in the process*.

Lucasfilm

"There was only one thing I wanted the whole shoot, and the entire time I kept whispering to people, like, 'Where do you keep that? Where will it be at the end? How do I get a hold of it? Can I have it?' And they were like 'No, this is going to be archived. A part of history'," said Edwards during a live Facebook chat with Rogue One's cast and creators (via io9).

"So, I obviously didn't do this, because they'll want it back... I stole the Death Star plans."

This content is imported from Third party. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

It doesn't seem that obvious to us, Gareth.

The cast then joked that they were just the people to steal them back.

Things have changed considerably since the early days of Star Wars, when many of the props were lost or destroyed.

Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, Jiang Wen and Forest Whitaker star in the upcoming movie, which will be the first in a (probably very long) series of Star Wars spinoffs - although we shouldn't expect any direct Rogue One sequels at least.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will be released in the UK on December 15 and in the US on December 16.

*We're fully aware that the Bothans stole the plans for the second Death Star, not the first. So don't worry.

Want up-to-the-minute entertainment and tech news? Just hit 'Like' on our Digital Spy Facebook page and 'Follow' on our @digitalspy Twitter account and you're all set.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io