Star Wars: Rogue One director reveals the prop Easter egg added by George Lucas

Every fan on the planet has predicted there’s going to be some Star Wars Easter eggs in Star Wars: Rogue One. They’d be right to think so too, as director Gareth Edwards has already hinted in the new issue of Total Film magazine - on sale now - that there’s one item in particular people should look out for. 

Although it wasn’t something he would have picked himself, when George Lucas says he likes a certain helmet lying around set, it’s not surprising that Edwards felt the certain urge to put it in the film.

It was clear from the beginning to Edwards that "whatever [Lucas] liked was pretty much guaranteed to be in the film," as you would expect when the creator of a franchise which has gripped the imaginations of millions takes a tour around the Rogue One design department. 

Edwards says that sitting in the department was "a helmet we loved but didn’t know where to put it; there wasn’t really an opportunity to use it". But when Lucas was given a tour of the design department, the father of Star Wars "walked past it and went 'That’s cool, I like that'". 

Unsurprisingly that led to a renewed determination to put the aforementioned mysterious helmet in the film, as the offhand comment by Lucas spurred Edwards into action, and at the mention of the helmet they "looked at each other like, 'OK, we have to put that in the film!'". 

Sadly, Edwards stopped short of giving us a description of the helmet in question so it'll be hard to spot in the movie, but hopefully he'll let us in on which one it is after the movie is released. 

Directed by Gareth Edwards and starring Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Forest Whitaker, and Alan Tudyk, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is scheduled to open in UK on December 15, 2016 and in the US a day later.

Subscribe to Total Film now and you’ll never miss an issue (as well as saving money on the cover price). Get the digital version for your tablet or have an exclusive subs cover through your door every month - or save even more with a print / digital bundle. Grab your first issue FREE direct from Apple Newsstand or read our Android version on Google Play.  

Subscribe this month and you’ll also receive a free Rey and Han Solo POP! Vinyl figure (while stocks last).

Images: Disney/LucasFilm 

Zoe Delahunty-Light

While here at GamesRadar, Zoe was a features writer and video presenter for us. She's since flown the coop and gone on to work at Eurogamer where she's a video producer, and also runs her own Twitch and YouTube channels. She specialises in huge open-world games, true crime, and lore deep-dives.