'Rogue One': Where Was Wedge Antilles During The Battle Of Scarif?

Darth Vader might be the most prominent returning character in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, but there were a handful of more obscure ones as well, including Red Leader and Gold Leader. One who didn't make it into the movie, though, was Wedge Antilles, despite the fact that A New Hope establishes him as being part of Red Squadron. So where was he during the Battle of Scarif?

Recently, the Lucasfilm Story Group's Pablo Hidalgo explained why Wedge was left out of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, while Rogue One supervising sound editor Matthew Wood revealed exactly what Wedge was doing instead. 

A couple of weeks ago, Hidalgo spelled out exactly why Wedge wasn't at the Battle of Scarif. Part of it has to do with practical logistics — there just wasn't that much footage of him — but it was also an effort to keep Wedge's story consistent (via Star Wars News Net).

Leave it to Star Wars to worry about what a prequel might do to a single line uttered by a relatively minor character in a movie from 40 years ago. This is why we love this franchise.

Now that we know Wedge wasn't present at the Battle of Scarif, though, it raises the question of what he was doing instead. Lucasfilm being Lucasfilm, they've got an answer for that, too.

But you may have already known that, if you've been following along with all of our Rogue One: A Star Wars Story coverage. Wood actually mentioned this little Easter egg in his recent interview with Peter. "I got the voice of the gentleman who played Wedge, David Ankrum, to voice a little cameo on Yavin 4 to have all their ships head out to go to the battle on Scarif," he said. "He was thrilled to come back, and we recorded him, and yeah, so those kinds of things, you just try to connect back."

Wedge might not be a major character in the grand scheme of things, but he's become something of a fan favorite and it's nice to hear Star Wars hasn't forgotten about him. In fact, you'll be hearing much more about him soon, as he'll appear in the final novel in Chuck Wendig's Star Wars: Aftermath trilogy, Empire's End, out on store shelves February 21.