“For a ‘Star Wars’ film, it was surprisingly unfinished in the script,” the “Hannibal” star said of the 2016 prequel.

Mads Mikkelsen says Rogue One script was unfinished: ‘I don’t think they ever locked a draft’

"For a 'Star Wars' film, it was surprisingly unfinished in the script," the "Hannibal" star said of the 2016 prequel.

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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December 23, 2025 4:50 p.m. ET

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Mads Mikkelsen in 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story'. Credit:

Jonathan Olley/Lucasfilm

- Mads Mikkelsen recently recalled that *Rogue One* was "surprisingly unfinished in the script."

- The actor said, "I don't think they ever locked a draft."

- Mikkelsen also noted that he thinks the final product "turned out to be a really nice film."

For a movie all about intricate planning, Mads Mikkelsen expected *Rogue One* to have more of a concrete narrative blueprint.

The Danish actor recently reflected on acting in the 2016 *Star Wars *prequel in a video interview with *Variety*. "For a *Star Wars* film, it was surprisingly unfinished in the script," he said. "It kept changing. One would think that that was already done. I don't think they ever locked a draft."

A representative for Lucasfilm didn't immediately respond to **'s request for comment on Mikkelsen's remarks.

Mikkelsen portrayed Galen Erso, a scientist who reluctantly helps construct the Death Star — and intentionally embeds a hidden weakness in the space station's foundation that eventually helps the Rebel Alliance blow the planet-destroying behemoth to smithereens.

Mads Mikkelsen in Berlin in 2025.

Ben Kriemann/Getty

The *Hannibal* and *Casino Royale* star said he wasn't particularly affected by whatever script changes may have occurred. "I think they kept working on it and improvised and went back and reshot stuff and then came up with a better idea, which is kind of livable for a character like mine," he said. "I mean, I had my mission. I knew what it was."

However, Mikkelsen empathized with the film's lead actors, Felicity Jones and Diego Luna, as he felt that their performances were more impacted by a shifting story. "It was obviously tricky for the two young heroes, not knowing exactly what they were carrying into a room of baggage," he mused. "But I think it turned out to be a really nice film."

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The *Doctor Strange* star also said that one of his scenes was particularly challenging to shoot: his death scene, in which he implores his onscreen daughter, Jyn (Jones), to destroy the Death Star.

"That was a brutal — I would say day, but it was days, because there was a lot of changes in the story," Mikkelsen said. "We went back and forth, and it was raining. When you do artificial rain, it is almost impossible to do that in a long scene without having ice-cold water. So I was lying there, freezing to death, trying to keep my eyes open while I'm looking at my daughter and doing this little speech to her. That was an uphill battle, let's put it that way."

Mikkelsen reiterated that he believes *Rogue One* was ultimately a successful movie. "I think the film ended up being a quite cute and sweet film," he said. "I enjoyed watching it."

Diego Luna, Felicity Jones, and Alan Tudyk in 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story'.

Jonathan Olley/Lucasfilm

*Rogue One* was directed by *Godzilla* filmmaker Gareth Edwards. The screenplay was penned by Chris Weitz (*About a Boy*) and Tony Gilroy (*Michael Clayton*), based on a story by John Knoll and Gary Whitta. Gilroy, who went on to oversee both seasons of the *Rogue One* prequel series *Andor*, also contributed significantly to extensive reshoots, though it's not entirely clear how those reshoots played out, as the filmmakers' accounts of production vary.

"I came in after the director's cut," Gilroy said in a 2018 interview. "They were in such a swamp. They were just in so much terrible, terrible trouble that all you could do was improve their position."

He continued, "There were no assholes involved in the process at all. There were some minor department heads who needed to be called along the way. But on all the upper level, there were no assholes. It was just a mess and fear, and they had just gotten themselves — and because it wasn't really my movie for a while, I slept every night. In my own movie, I wouldn't sleep. But because it was somebody else's."

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In 2023, Edwards maintained that he was involved in the reshoot process until the conclusion of production. "The stuff that's out there on the internet about what happened on that film — there's so much inaccuracy about the whole thing," he said in a 2023 interview with KRCW's *The Business*. "Tony came in and he did a lot of great work for sure, no doubt about it. But we all worked together till the entire last minute of that movie. Like the very last thing that we filmed in the pickup shoot was the Darth Vader corridor scene, which I did all that stuff."

The filmmaker noted that every movie is a feat of collaboration. "It's always a team effort making a movie, especially a big giant movie like that," he said. "It was a dream come true. I'm proud of the movie we all made. It's very difficult to make even a film, let alone something people might like. And so, you know, what goes in Fight Club stays in Fight Club kind of thing, you know."**

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