Although Rogue One was a critical and commercial hit, the behind-the-scenes drama was well-documented and followed the film right up to its release.
One of the major points that people noted was how different the ending was in relation to the trailer footage that was shown prior to release, something which came up in a recent interview with director Gareth Edwards for /Film. According to Edwards, the reason for the change in the ending was pretty straightforward - editing and pacing.
"I think the main thing that changed at the end…what used to happen, and you can get a sense of this in the early trailers, the transmission tower for the plans was separate from the main base on Scarif. To transmit the plans, they had to escape and run along the beach and go up the tower. In cutting the film, it just felt too long," explained Edwards.
"We had to find ways to compress the third act, which was quite long as it was. And one real, fast, brutal solution was to put the tower in the base, so they don’t have to run across the beach and do all of that stuff to get there. That became a decision that eliminated the shots you see in the trailer of the back of Cassian and Jyn and the AT-ATs. That was some of the reinvention that happened. It was all to do with compression."
It's a fair decision, however Edwards also pointed out that that ending will never see the light of day as he believes there are currently no plans to have any of the deleted scenes featured in the Rogue One home release.
Via /Film