'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' was in "terrible, terrible trouble" before extensive reshoots.
Rogue One actress Felicity Jones
The team behind the 2016 stand-alone sci-fi movie brought in writer Tony Gilroy to make last-minute changes to the film and he has admitted the movie was in a "mess" when he came on board.
Speaking on podcast 'The Moment with Brian Koppelman', he said: "If you look at 'Rogue', all the difficulty with 'Rogue' and all the confusion of it and all the smart people and all the mess, and in the end when you get in there, it's actually very, very simple to solve.
"Because you sort of go, 'This is a movie where, folks, just look. Everyone is gonna die.' So it's a movie about sacrifice."
But despite the difficulties within the production, Tony claimed a solution to the problems was "instantly clear" to him and he felt the best way to improve the movie - which starred Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed, and Ben Mendelsohn - was to flesh out the main characters more.
He said: "I saw the purity that was missing and I saw that, at least, in terms of one or two of the characters because who knew how big the fix was gonna be?"
The writer admitted he doesn't have a great desire to return to the 'Star Wars' franchise again in the future.
He said: "I had no reverence for it whatsoever.
"It doesn't appeal to me, but I don't think 'Rogue' really is a 'Star Wars' movie in many ways. To me, it's a Battle of Britain movie."
'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' was set between the events of 'Episode III - Revenge of the Sith' and 'Episode IV - A New Hope' and focuses on the Rebel Alliance's mission to steal the plans for the Galactic Empire's Death Star super-weapon.
Tagged in Tony Gilroy Diego Luna Felicity Jones