Rogue One director Gareth Edwards revealed during a recent interview that he took never before seen Star Wars footage from the original and integrated it into one of the film’s big battle scenes. The first Star Wars standalone movie is chock full of easter eggs and nostalgia encompassing various films from across the epic space saga. In fact, one of the moments that garnered a lot of whelps and cheers during my screening of the film is in the middle of a huge battle when rebel backup arrives in the form of X-Wing pilots as they begin to exchange callsigns.

The Star Wars footage of two X-Wing pilots played by Angus MacInnes and Drewe Henley shown in Rogue One were in fact clips that had been left on the cutting room floor and never made it into the final cut of the original film. Edwards discussed his visit to Skywalker ranch and how the whole idea came about saying the following:

We went to Skywalker ranch, and there’s the archives there.  And as we’re walking around, and doing all the cool things and looking at the Millennium Falcon and trying on Han Solo’s jacket and things like that, in the back at the bottom was all these cans of film. And we said, ‘What are they?’ and they said, ‘Oh, it’s Star Wars.’ “And you go… ‘has someone gone through all this? And it’s like, ‘not really, they’re not fully digitised at all.

We got the neg documents and found the clips from A New Hope that hadn’t been used. And there’s pilot photography and lines that were never featured in [the film.] Through the magic of [vfx studio] ILM they cut round them and manipulated them and stuck them into our cockpits.”

The director also recalled the world premier and the atmosphere in the theater at the time in the movie when the scene takes place. “There was this massive cheer at a particular point in the film. It was the only time during the premiere where I actually punched the air.” He also spoke about how he was hesitant to add the scenes at first because of the cost involved as well as the question of how many people would notice. We’re sure to his great delight that in true to form fashion many fans of the franchise indeed noticed and appreciated the callback.

Rogue One dominated the box office last weekend opening to $155 Million domestically and $135.5 million internationally bringing its first weekend global total to $290.5 million! If you’ve seen the film make sure to check out our Full (Spoilers) review here.

Have you seen the film and if so was the addition of never before seen Star Wars footage one of the highlights for you? Tell us which easter eggs and callbacks were your favorites by joining the conversation in the comments below and as always keep a tab opened on Don’t Feed The Gamers for all the news you need to know.