The Original Death Star, Rogue One, & Gus Lopez

On the most recent episode of the "Toy Run" Podcast, Gus Lopez shares his thoughts on Rogue One. As some of you may know, he owns the original screen used model of the Death Star from the first film.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Back during Celebration Europe there was a panel featuring John Knoll and Doug Chang (available on YouTube) where they reference the fact that (through what they describe as poor management essentially) Lucasfilm no longer owns the original Death Star model. Because of this, the appearance of the space station in the new film is based on old photographs of the model.

Ever since I heard this I was simply dying to hear a reply from Mr. Lopez on this matter, did he decline to provide access to the model or even refuse to allow new photos to be taken? Or did he ask too high a price? OR was lucasfilm too proud to bother with it?

According to Mr. Lopez on the latest episode of Toy Run, he was never asked. I'd love to hear why from someone at Lucasfilm, John Knoll would surely have the answer.

That's an interesting question. I would think Gus would have jumped at the chance to have his model used in the new movie, if he was asked.

Yeah you'd think lol I just couldn't fathom what the problem was. It would be one thing if John Knoll thought they simply didn't need it, but on that panel he kinda expressed annoyance at not having it available and he discussed how they pieced it together from low res photos. turned out fine obviously lol but strange.

I guess they already had what they needed to re-create it for Rogue One. Lucasfilm must have access to a lot of documents we probably don't even know exist, such as the un-used footages of Gold Leader and Red Leader pilots they have used for the last battle of the film. I've read they've found reels of cut footages from ANH at Skywalker ranch and they simply took the pilots scenes and added new backgrounds to fit the new film.