*WARNING: SPOILERS FOR ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY AHEAD*

If there was one great secret surrounding the release of the first of the planned Star Wars anthology films, it was the revelation Rogue One bore an even stronger connection to the franchise's past than previously thought.

Rogue One, of course, follows a wayward band of Rebel fighters brought together for one improbable mission: steal the plans for the Death Star. These events, of course, directly link into the first scenes of A New Hope; when Princess Leia is seen concealing the plans in R2-D2 before she's captured by the Galactic Empire.

What had been kept hidden, however, was that two iconic characters from A New Hope itself would actually be brought back through the magic of CGI: Peter Cushing's Grand Moff Tarkin and Carrie Fisher's Princess Leia.

Gareth Edwards defended the film's risky manoeuvre in the Radio Times, stating: "We were talking about it, and you sort of lay out the movie, and as you start laying it you go, you know what, you’ve gotta have these certain characters in there, and I dunno how we’d do it. Like, what do we do? Do we cast someone who looks like them? Do we not have them? Do we just hear about them?"

He continued, "You know, to be honest, a lot of people were nervous the whole time, like, is this gonna happen? And then we went all or nothing in."

"A lot of us got into the industry because of Star Wars, and we all have this love of the original source material," John Knoll, the chief creative officer at Industrial Light & Magic and a visual effects supervisor on Rogue One told The New York Times; arguing that the CGI effects are, "in the spirit of what a lot of Star Wars has done in the past."

"If he’s not in the movie, we’re going to have to explain why he’s not in the movie," added Kiri Hart, a Lucasfilm story development executive and Rogue One co-producer. "This is kind of his thing."

The effect was achieved by using English actor Guy Henry (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One and Two, Holby City) during principal photography, as he possesses a similar build and stature as Cushing's, who passed away in 1994, and could speak in a similar manner.



Henry wore motion capture materials on his head, so that his face could eventually be replaced with a digital likeness of Cushing's; though the team did have a back up plan in place in case things didn't work out, either transferring lines to other characters or having Tarkin appear only in hologram communications.

Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic state the re-creation of Cushing was done entirely with the approval of the actor's estate; though they were well aware of the potential ethical "slippery slope" involved in bringing back the dead through a digital likeness, Knoll doesn't believe this has opened the door to the technique being abused in the future.

[SPOILERS] 13 scenes from Rogue One's trailers cut from the film Show all 13 1 /13 [SPOILERS] 13 scenes from Rogue One's trailers cut from the film [SPOILERS] 13 scenes from Rogue One's trailers cut from the film 'I rebel' Straight off the bat, that instantly infamous line from Felicity Jones' Jyn Erso - "This is a rebellion, isn't it? I rebel" - is missing from the final cut. Probably a good thing, considering nobody needs Jyn's entire character motivation spelled out in quite such obvious terms. [SPOILERS] 13 scenes from Rogue One's trailers cut from the film Moody Orson Krennic This brilliantly moody shot from the film's teaser never makes it into the final cut, but there's a good chance it was never intended to, having all the hallmarks of footage deliberately shot for the trailer. Walt Disney Studios [SPOILERS] 13 scenes from Rogue One's trailers cut from the film Moody Jyn Erso The same goes for this look at Jyn Erso in her Imperial disguise, which definitely has the look of a promotional shot to it. [SPOILERS] 13 scenes from Rogue One's trailers cut from the film 'What will you become?' The look at Jyn's Imperial outfit coincides with the final line of a cut monologue from Saw Gerrera: "What will you become?" The confusing part here is that Saw is seen with the close-cropped hair he sports only in the prologue scenes, when Jyn is only a child. When she visits him in Jedha, his hair is much fuller and he's sporting a beard. So, was this speech somehow originally delivered to Galen Erso in a cut prologue segment? In the context of Galen's work with the Empire and his later attempts to evade them, Saw's words would make a lot more sense. [SPOILERS] 13 scenes from Rogue One's trailers cut from the film And Moody Darth Vader Potentially another promo shot, considering this was used as the very first reveal of Darth Vader in the trailers. [SPOILERS] 13 scenes from Rogue One's trailers cut from the film Krennic and Vader However, this shot also shows a cut scene between Krennic and Vader, in which the former talks about the "power we are dealing with here". [SPOILERS] 13 scenes from Rogue One's trailers cut from the film 'The captain says you are a friend. I will not kill you' K-2SO has many similar lines directed to Jyn throughout the film, but they're a lot less sinister than this one. [SPOILERS] 13 scenes from Rogue One's trailers cut from the film Captured rebel pilots This shot from Jedha is missing. It doesn't exactly add anything to the story, but it's an added touch of grit which sets the tone nicely in the trailers. [SPOILERS] 13 scenes from Rogue One's trailers cut from the film 'Good.' 'Good.' A cut moment between Jyn and Cassian, though it's a little hard to tell where this comes from - there's no moment where Jyn sits as co-pilot on the U-wing, since it's usually K-2SO in the seat. [SPOILERS] 13 scenes from Rogue One's trailers cut from the film Jyn faces off against a TIE fighter What's interesting is that this shot of Jyn limping across the Scarif communications tower is, of course, in the final film. It's just that the TIE fighter is entirely absent. Was this a cut moment? Was Krennic piloting that thing? Or was it even just cut into the trailer to keep audiences off the scent? [SPOILERS] 13 scenes from Rogue One's trailers cut from the film Krennic on the Scarif beaches And what about this great shot of Krennic marching amongst the dead? The set-up and lighting seem to imply he survives the initial battle without getting shot by Cassian, and is on the ground when the Death Star destroys Scarif - if that's indeed the source of the glow in the background. [SPOILERS] 13 scenes from Rogue One's trailers cut from the film Jyn and Cassian in the Scarif battle In fact, the trailer footage seems to hint at a drastically different ending, which may point to what exactly got changed during the re-shoots. We see multiple shots of Jyn and Cassian running along the Scarif beach with the Death Star plans. Considering the battle is still in full swing, it suggests the archives and the communications tower may have been separate locations in the original version. [SPOILERS] 13 scenes from Rogue One's trailers cut from the film Jyn, Cassian, and K-2SO running through Scarif base And here, again, we see Cassian, Jyn, and K-2SO running with the data plans through the Scarif base. That means the droid wasn't originally meant to die (or whatever happens to droids) defending the archive room.



"I don’t imagine that happening," Mr. Knoll said. "This was done for very solid and defendable story reasons. This is a character that is very important to telling this kind of story. It is extremely labour-intensive and expensive to do. I don’t imagine anybody engaging in this kind of thing in a casual manner."

Knoll stressed the same importance when it came to re-creating Carrie Fisher (who passed away on 27 December)'s Princess Leia, by using actor Ingvild Deila and a digital likeness of Leia based on footage from A New Hope.

"To deliver on that moment of hopefulness, that is really underscored by the fact that you do get to see her face," Hart stressed. "That’s the best possible use of effects, to enhance the meaning and the emotion of the experience for the viewer."