Via Gamespot.com:
Star Wars creator George Lucas visited the set of Rogue One and gave director Gareth Edwards some “advice,” it’s been revealed. Edwards appeared on a France’s TMC network recently to promote Rogue One and he recalled what Lucas had to say about the sci-fi spinoff.
“He said, ‘Don’t screw it up,'” Edwards joked, according to ComicBook.com. Lucas went on to make a self-deprecating joke about how Rogue One would benefit from lots of CGI. “He joked a lot about how we should do more in the computer, and not build so much,” Edwards said.
The Star Wars prequel trilogy was criticized for its extended use of CGI, among other things. “We didn’t take his advice,” Edwards said. “We tried to shoot as much in-camera as possible.”
On a more serious note, Edwards said it was “surreal” to meet with Lucas and show him, the creator of the series, a Star Wars movie that he did not work on. “Like, that was really crazy,” Edwards said.
The director went on to say that he “felt for [Lucas]” in this situation, going on to say that Lucas was “incredibly gracious” during his visit.
Lucas made headlines last year when he spoke out to say Star Wars: The Force Awakens strayed from his vision for where the series would go.
Also in the interview, Edwards confirmed that Rogue One will not have the Star Wars franchise’s iconic opening crawl, which is no big surprise. Though there is no crawl, Edwards confirmed (via StarWarsNews.net) that there is a prologue sequence at the start of the film that will explain what happened 15 years before the events of the movie. Some of Rogue One’s trailers and TV spots have shown a young version of main character Jyn Erso; these scenes could be from the prologue.
Rogue One opens in theaters on December 16.