It’s no surprise that theStar Warsspin-offRogue Oneis a bona fidebox office hit. Earlier this week, it passed $600 million at the worldwide box office. The franchise is one of the most beloved in cinematic history, with all eight movies released so far earning a whopping $3.5 billion domestically and $7.3 billion worldwide. With all that being said, it’s quite surprising to learn that one of theRogue Onestars,Wen Jiang, has never seen anyStar Warsmovie before.
The news comes from directorGareth Edwards, who revealed in this juiy bit of gossip in a lengthy conversation onEmpirewith the entire cast. The director says thatWen Jiang’s character Baze Malbus, and his longtime friend Chirrut Imwe (Donnie Yen) are inspired by characters from theAkira KurosawaclassicThe Hidden Fortress. Here’s what the director had to say about these characters, before dropping the bombshell thatWen Jianghas never seen aStar Warsmovie before.
“It was definitely a deliberate thing to have diverse characters. BecauseStar Warsis so diverse - they have walking carpets and droids. It’s about as diverse as it gets. But what happened is things evolved. Like, you know, you’ve gotStar Warsand you’ve got to make a film [set just] before it. So what do you do? One of the things you can do is look at the things that inspiredGeorgeand go back to them and see if you can branch off in a different direction. One of the main things that inspired him wasKurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress. And there were two characters in particular that inspired C-3PO and R2D2, and they were these Japanese slave-servants who bickered all the time. And I was thinking, ‘why don’t we just do that but without making them robots?’ So that started off beingBaze and Chirrut. It feels right that there’d be Asian characters in Star Wars, because it’s got such Asian influences. And because it’s Star Wars, you can kind of go for anyone: ‘Who are the best Asian actors in the world?’ Though, what’s funny is,Jiang Wen, who plays Baze, has never seen Star Wars in his life.”
Gareth Edwardsrevealed that he didn’t wantWen Jiangto watchStar Warsduring the production, because he thought it’d be funny if he got to the world premiere and one of his stars had never seen aStar Warsmovie before. As it turns out, there is a very good reason thatWen Jianghas never seenStar Wars, since he grew up in a much different time in China. Here’s what the actor had to say below, revealing he plans to fill his gap inStar Warsknowledge soon.
“I know nothing about them. Because when I grew up, there were no American movies in China. That was Cold War time, so noStar Wars. Now there’s no Cold War, we can haveStar Wars. So I will see it after I finish this movie, from beginning to end.”
Given howRogue Oneends, it’s possible we may never seeWen Jiang’s Baze Malbus again, but it’s also possible that he could return in future spin-offs set before the events ofRogue One, or in the animated TV seriesStar Wars: The Clone Wars. We reported earlier this month thatForest Whitakerwill return to provide the voice for hisRogue One: A Star Wars Storycharacter Saw Gerrera in an upcoming episode ofStar Wars: The Clone Wars, which is set several years before the events ofRogue One. Hopefully we’ll find out more about whether or not LucasFilm has plans to bring back Baze Malbus or any of the otherRogue Onecharacters in the near future.
