ANDOR: The Rogue One Arc [Rogue One Rescore]

[NFBisms]

TLDR: ROGUE ONE (2016) CUT INTO AND RESCORED IN THE STYLE OF AN ANDOR (2022) ARC.​

What it says on the tin, pretty much. Andor brainrot has had me this past year, it’s genuinely become one of my favorite shows of all time - to the point I joke about being an Andor fan more than I am a fan of Star Wars itself. This edit is kind of an expression of that with a movie I generally really liked - moving its energy from emulating the jaunty, swashbuckling OT, to more in line with its prequel show’s feel.

Up front, I don’t actually think this elevates or changes Rogue One in any meaningful way. The movie is still the movie, still fast paced and action oriented, particularly compared to Andor’s fiercer, slower, and paranoid ethos. But I do think the elements Andor is rooted in become far more apparent foregrounded to this soundtrack. Where the movie somewhat failed to recapture the energy and excitement of traditional Star Wars (and not for lack of Giacchino effort), the places where it takes itself seriously should now feel less dissonant in a [tonal] context that seriously considers them.

If nothing else, it’s just fun to have the show and movie connected via the same musical motifs and format!

EPISODE 1: “JEDHA”​

Starts from the Lah’mu sequence, up to Cassian, Jyn, and co. flying out from the destruction of Jedha City.

• Some of the long opening shots of Krennic flying through space down to the planet are cut. The Andor opening titles are already pretty lengthy and serving the kind of build up those were originally intended for.
• I cut off Jyn’s childhood sequence before Saw comes to find her in the hatch, to facilitate a hard cut time skip transition (similar to the Kenari ones we had of Cassian). Who Saw is to Jyn is elaborated on some scenes later anyway, and the same imagery pops up in a flashback further on too.
• A couple reaction shots of Jyn at the Yavin holotable have been removed/replaced with unused shots from the trailers to facilitate how the scoring is different.
• For similar reasons to the above, removed the pregnant pause in Tarkin’s introduction, trimming some of the more redundant dialogue in the process.
• No Bor Gullet scene.
• Some egregious easter eggs on Jedha removed.

Definitely want to work on this one more, it doesn’t quite work for me but that could just be the movie itself.

EPISODE 2: “STARDUST”​

Starts from Tarkin taking the Death Star project from Krennic, up to Jyn and Cassian walking onboard the stolen shuttle to go to Scarif.

• Includes Previously On recap of “Jedha”
• Completely cut the Darth Vader scene on Mustafar, moving in its place a later scene where Krennic starts to look over Galen’s communications on Scarif. It was a functionally redundant scene anyway, but it also just doesn’t feel like Andor.

EPISODE 3: “ROGUE ONE”​

Starts from Rogue One pulling away from Yavin, up to Jyn and Cassian embracing as they are engulfed in the death cloud.

• Includes Previously On recap of “Stardust”
• Again, the Vader and Leia scene immediately pull us away from the perspective Andor usually takes, and are mostly redundant, so it just felt right to leave them out. Post-credits though…

CLIPS​

Cassian’s Intro
Cassian Speech
Recap of Ep 1 (In Ep 2)
Recap of Ep 2 (In Ep 3)

SOURCES USED​

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
The Shamook Deepfakes of Tarkin + Leia
Andor Soundtrack by Nicholas Britell
The King Soundtrack by Nicholas Britell
She Said Soundtrack by Nicholas Britell
The Little Drummer Girl Soundtrack by Jo Yeong-wook
The Expanse Season 2 Soundtrack by Clinton Shorter
Assassin's Creed Unity Soundtrack by Sarah Schachner
Call of Duty Modern Warfare II Soundtrack by Sarah Schachner
Call of Duty Vanguard Soundtrack by Bear McCreary
Elysium Soundtrack by Ryan Amon

So generally - these are [kind of] done, but with the nature of the work to do an edit like this, I actually haven’t spent too much time reviewing and just pushed through to complete its concept. I truly do not know how any of this all plays together. So feedback / another pair of fresh eyes would still be greatly appreciated - any technical things I missed, ideas you might have, or critiques of the music choices. It isn’t all just Britell’s Andor soundtrack here, there is some stuff from adjacent [hopefully obscure enough to not be recognized] sci-fi / historical / thriller shows and movies. I won’t rule out that there are better choices than the ones I landed on, super zoomed into an NLE timeline, taking it one scene at a time. Thanks for checking out if you do!

IFDB LISTING

PM FOR LINK​

SPECIAL THANKS
snooker (OT.com)
Chase Adams (OT.com)
Hal 9000 (OT.com)
RogueLeader (OT.com)
futon88 (FE.org)

 

[DigModiFicaTion]

This is such a hard thing to pull off. I've been working on the same idea for some time and the audio replacement and design is a beast. Super awesome that you have been able to pull it off!

• Again, the Vader and Leia scene immediately pull us away from the perspective Andor usually takes, and are mostly redundant, so it just felt right to leave them out. Post-credits though…

I'm torn with those scenes too and was going to take the same approach. The length seemed a bit more than a typical pair credit scene. I'd be interested to see that transition to see how it flows in yours.

 

[ArtisDead]

Very impressive project list. Love that poster! Can't wait to see this!

 

[Moe_Syzlak]

I'm torn with those scenes too and was going to take the same approach. The length seemed a bit more than a typical pair credit scene. I'd be interested to see that transition to see how it flows in yours.

I feel the same way. I do like the Vader coda, but it does feel a bit shameless fan service. It’s so interesting to me that, IIRC, Gilroy is the one who added that scene as it does seem like one of the most not Andor-like scenes in the movie.

 

[NFBisms]

Yeah I tend to like the scene(s) but I think for this project, it feels right to leave them out. And moreso because Cassian's death is full-circle to Andor proper in a lot of visual and thematic ways; that'd be the conclusion to a show called "Andor". While we do know the outcome, the "uncertainty" of the sacrifice at the very least evoked with this choice (kinda like Kino's), is the most this thing actually feels like Andor beyond the comparatively superficial rescoring and format shift. I almost don't want to include the Vader / Leia scenes at all.

I do like those scenes though, I just think their value was in connecting to the OT as an RO epilogue / ANH prologue. (Which, they're shaky at even that depending on your POV about it). This edit is trying to connect backwards more than anything.

Not to mention, for characters like Vader and Leia, I don't think I could crack finding a score "big" or fitting enough for those characters that fit neatly into Andor's vibe. At a certain point, the bridge to ANH should probably just be allowed to be as Star Wars-y as it needs to be.

 

[Moe_Syzlak]

Oh I fully agree. In case my earlier post wasn’t clear, I was endorsing the idea of ending where you. I just find it interesting that it was Gilroy himself that added those scenes. Honestly, for this project, my vote would be to not include the scenes at all. I’m kind of over the whole idea of a post credits scene anyway.

 

[Martin Smithee]

TLDR: ROGUE ONE (2016) CUT INTO AND RESCORED IN THE STYLE OF AN ANDOR (2022) ARC.​

What it says on the tin, pretty much. Andor brainrot has had me this past year, it’s genuinely become one of my favorite shows of all time - to the point I joke about being an Andor fan more than I am a fan of Star Wars itself. This edit is kind of an expression of that with a movie I generally really liked - moving its energy from emulating the jaunty, swashbuckling OT, to more in line with its prequel show’s feel.

Up front, I don’t actually think this elevates or changes Rogue One in any meaningful way. The movie is still the movie, still fast paced and action oriented, particularly compared to Andor’s fiercer, slower, and paranoid ethos. But I do think the elements Andor is rooted in become far more apparent foregrounded to this soundtrack. Where the movie somewhat failed to recapture the energy and excitement of traditional Star Wars (and not for lack of Giacchino effort), the places where it takes itself seriously should now feel less dissonant in a [tonal] context that seriously considers them.

If nothing else, it’s just fun to have the show and movie connected via the same musical motifs and format!

EPISODE 1: “JEDHA”​

Starts from the Lah’mu sequence, up to Cassian, Jyn, and co. flying out from the destruction of Jedha City.

• Some of the long opening shots of Krennic flying through space down to the planet are cut. The Andor opening titles are already pretty lengthy and serving the kind of build up those were originally intended for.
• I cut off Jyn’s childhood sequence before Saw comes to find her in the hatch, to facilitate a hard cut time skip transition (similar to the Kenari ones we had of Cassian). Who Saw is to Jyn is elaborated on some scenes later anyway, and the same imagery pops up in a flashback further on too.
• A couple reaction shots of Jyn at the Yavin holotable have been removed/replaced with unused shots from the trailers to facilitate how the scoring is different.
• For similar reasons to the above, removed the pregnant pause in Tarkin’s introduction, trimming some of the more redundant dialogue in the process.
• No Bor Gullet scene.
• Some egregious easter eggs on Jedha removed.

Definitely want to work on this one more, it doesn’t quite work for me but that could just be the movie itself.

EPISODE 2: “STARDUST”​

Starts from Tarkin taking the Death Star project from Krennic, up to Jyn and Cassian walking onboard the stolen shuttle to go to Scarif.

• Includes Previously On recap of “Jedha”
• Completely cut the Darth Vader scene on Mustafar, moving in its place a later scene where Krennic starts to look over Galen’s communications on Scarif. It was a functionally redundant scene anyway, but it also just doesn’t feel like Andor.

EPISODE 3: “ROGUE ONE”​

Starts from Rogue One pulling away from Yavin, up to Jyn and Cassian embracing as they are engulfed in the death cloud.

• Includes Previously On recap of “Stardust”
• Again, the Vader and Leia scene immediately pull us away from the perspective Andor usually takes, and are mostly redundant, so it just felt right to leave them out. Post-credits though…

CLIPS​

Cassian’s Intro
Cassian Speech
Recap of Ep 1 (In Ep 2)
Recap of Ep 2 (In Ep 3)

SOURCES USED​

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Andor Soundtrack by Nicholas Britell
The King Soundtrack by Nicholas Britell
She Said Soundtrack by Nicholas Britell
The Little Drummer Girl Soundtrack by Jo Yeong-wook
The Expanse Season 2 Soundtrack by Clinton Shorter
Assassin's Creed Unity Soundtrack by Sarah Schachner
Call of Duty Modern Warfare II Soundtrack by Sarah Schachner
Call of Duty Vanguard Soundtrack by Bear McCreary
Elysium Soundtrack by Ryan Amon

So generally - these are [kind of] done, but with the nature of the work to do an edit like this, I actually haven’t spent too much time reviewing and just pushed through to complete its concept. I truly do not know how any of this all plays together. So feedback / another pair of fresh eyes would still be greatly appreciated - any technical things I missed, ideas you might have, or critiques of the music choices. It isn’t all just Britell’s Andor soundtrack here, there is some stuff from adjacent [hopefully obscure enough to not be recognized] sci-fi / historical / thriller shows and movies. I won’t rule out that there are better choices than the ones I landed on, super zoomed into an NLE timeline, taking it one scene at a time. Thanks for checking out if you do!

PM FOR LINK​

Good luck with your work. It does look really good.

 

[ravks]

Now this seems pretty interesting. I see Andor getting more praise as time goes on and it’s definitely deserved. It’s nice seeing Rogue One get revisited, it’s one of the few SW films I haven’t seen a fanedit of yet. I remember being thrilled to go see it in theaters. Fun experience

 

[NFBisms]

Oh I fully agree. In case my earlier post wasn’t clear, I was endorsing the idea of ending where you. I just find it interesting that it was Gilroy himself that added those scenes. Honestly, for this project, my vote would be to not include the scenes at all. I’m kind of over the whole idea of a post credits scene anyway.

I looked into it, and Edwards was actually the one who directed that scene as a last-minute addition, and credits one of the editors (Jabez Olssen) for coming up with the pitch. More recent interviews clarify that yeah, while Gilroy came in towards the end of the whole process and revamped much of the film, he was working with, not over Edwards / the rest of the team. Given how none of the principal cast are even in those scenes, it's possible that shoot and Gilroy's reshoots happened simultaneously or very near each other.

It is interesting that Gilroy takes such ownership of Rogue One though. From what I glean, Gilroy's contributions had more to do with the first act if anything. You can kinda tell - there's a lot of "galacti-political" intrigue and light logistics talk compressed into that first act (that the early trailers are not like, at all), gesturing at some of the complexity Andor eventually gets to fully unravel. Whatever the case, I suppose that trickles down into his punching up all throughout. If most of his work was about tightening the stage setting, that ties back to the overall narrative and character motivations.

With the idea that it was "messy" and incoherent pre-Gilroy, it's easy to extrapolate from other Edwards work that what existed before must've been a very pretty but shallow actioner. Gilroy is then who adds / fills out the throughlines of spiritual sacrifice (Cassian), careerism (Krennic), and lightly fulfills some of those background arcs about revolutionary sectarianism. Again, it's the "boring" and choppy stuff of RO that Andor is given time of day to actually make interesting - but a "necessary evil" kind of boring that pays off and coheres Rogue One, if even subliminally. I don't think any of that is consistent to adding the Darth Vader scene, so I'm inclined to believe Gareth.

At the end of the day, Rogue One was very much a studio film - even if Gilroy feels responsible for what the movie is dramaturgically - it's a produced mash-up.

---

WRT this edit, I'm waiting on some feedback from more people and a few things re: polish and technical stuff to work on before I consider submitting. I always forget to submit or never feel like it, but I think this one is pretty solid!

I think the only creative thing left I'm on the fence about is whether or not to include the previously discussed Vader scene / what to do with it. I've made up my mind about it not being in the episode proper, but do I even want it as a post credits scene? I agree that the idea of post credits are kind of lame, and it kind of dilutes the ending as it became. But it would be nice for people that want it.

 

[ArtisDead]

This edit is currently being reviewed by @futon88 for approval.

 

[fredyk10]

I like what I see. Andor season 3?

 

[ArtisDead]

Thank you so much for your very thorough and passionate review, @futon88. You continue to impress!
Welcome to our family, @NFBisms! Congratulations, @futon88 has approved your edit!

 

[futon88]

This is easily my preferred way to watch Rogue One now. The new music is transformative. Seriously, if you have the means, check this out.

 

[NFBisms]

Threw together a quick little teaser, maybe something that would come out in the week before this hypothetical arc would premiere, if this were actually the finale of Andor. Wanted to use mostly shots that didn't "spoil" too much, and also felt in line with the new vibe.

 

[slyfoxfe]

This looks awesome. Once all of the seasons of Andor are out, this can be added as the final season in Emby or Plex.

 

[jedimasterluke]

Does this use the uhd blu ray as a source?