Via Starwars.com:

THE STAR WARS LEGEND DISCUSSES CREATING A SITH LORD’S CASTLE, MENACING NEW STORMTROOPERS, AND MUCH MORE.

For Doug Chiang, Rogue One wasn’t just the first Star Wars stand-alone film. It wasn’t just the telling of a major tale in Star Wars lore. It was, as StarWars.com found out in the interview below, something much more personal: the chance to really fulfill a childhood-turned-professional dream. As Lucasfilm’s VP and executive creative director, Chiang, a peerless concept artist, has been a key figure in crafting the look of Star Wars since the prequel trilogy. But Rogue One took Star Wars back to the future, as it were, with a story set right before the first film made in the saga, A New Hope. This meant that Chiang, co-production designer on Rogue One, would need to design ships and characters and creatures that were visually in sync with the movie that started it all — and the movie that made perhaps the biggest impact on his life. It was a unique if not ironic challenge, and the creative journey — of Chiang and many more great Lucasfilm designers — is documented in Abrams’ beautiful The Art of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, available now. Armed with spreads from the book, of which Chiang wrote the foreword, StarWars.com visited the artist in his office to discuss creating Episode IV-style designs, the dark-side architectural theory behind Darth Vader’s castle, and why thin stormtroopers are actually scarier.

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