Book Review: 'The Art of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story'

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Front cover art: Production painting of K-2SO by Doug Chiang. © 2016 Abrams Books and Lucasfilm Ltd/ (LFL)


On December 16, 2016, New York-based Abrams Books published The Art of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, a 256-page hardcover book of concept art created during the making of director Gareth Edwards' Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the first of Lucasfilm's standalone "Anthology" films  set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Written by Josh Kushins (The Art of John Carter: A Visual Journey), the book features concept paintings, set designs, sketches of new spaceships, weapons, and other props, as well as art depicting Rogue One's cast of Rebels and Imperials.

This book is a visual chronicle of the Lucasfilm art department’s creation of new worlds, unforgettable characters, and newly imagined droids, vehicles, and weapons for the first movie in the Star Wars Story series—Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. In the same format and style as Abrams’ The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the book gives readers unprecedented access to hundreds of concept paintings, sketches, storyboards, matte paintings, and character, costume, and vehicle designs. The Art of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will stand as the definitive guide to the artwork and imagination behind the newest chapter in the Star Wars franchise and will delight Star Wars fans and cineastes for decades to come. - Publisher's blurb on the Abrams Books website.

Kushins, a writer-publicist who has worked for various production companies, including The Walt Disney Company and Lucasfilm, follows Lucasfilm vice president and creative director Doug Chiang (co-production designer for Rogue One), co-production designer Neil Lamont, and the Art Department at Skywalker Ranch as they collaborate with executive producer John Knoll (the Lucasfilm executive and visual effects guru who conceived Rogue One) and director Gareth Edwards to bring to life the story of the Rebel cell that stole the Death Star plans just prior to the events of Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope. 
In his foreword, Doug Chiang credits Carol Titleman's original The Art of Star Wars as the catalyst for his career as a film concept artist. © 1979 Ballantine Books and 20th Century Fox Film Corporation. 

 The Art of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story features three forewords. In the first, Doug Chiang tells readers about how Carol Titleman's The Art of Star Wars not only created a new sub-genre of book publishing (the concept art book) but also inspired the young Taiwanese-American to become an artist for the film industry.

"Gracing those pages," Chiang writes, "were beautiful illustrations by Ralph McQuarrie, Joe Johnston, and many other talented artists who helped bring the Star Wars universe to life. Their artwork was sublime. George Lucas had assembled a team of artists who would inspire him, as well as be inspired by him. Seeing their vivid visions, full of wonder and color, with memorable characters surrounded by magnificent environments, profoundly affected me as a fifteen-year-old. Like many young aspiring artists, my career path was cemented from that moment. I knew then that I wanted to create artwork like that. Now, nearly thirty-five years later, 'artwork like that' would be the same high bar we set for ourselves as we embarked on designing Rogue One: A Star Wars Story."

After Chiang's co-production designer Neil Lamont and director Gareth Edwards share their thoughts about the role played by concept art in shaping the story and look of Rogue One, Kushins takes over as the main narrator/interviewer for The Art of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, doing for the 2016 film what fellow author Phil Szostak did for The Art of  Star Wars: The Force Awakens and (later) The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi and The Art of Solo: A Star Wars Story. 
Jedda Exterior Version 1A, concept painting by Matt Alsopp. © 2016 Abrams Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)  
Directed by Gareth Edwards (Godzilla, Monsters), with production design by Doug Chiang and Neil Lamont, Rogue One chronicles the adventures of a Rebel cell tasked with a desperate mission: to steal the plans for the Death Star before it can be used to enforce the Emperor’s rule. The all-star cast includes Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Forest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, Riz Ahmed, Ben Mendelsohn, Jiang Wen, and Donnie Yen.  Publisher's blurb on the Abrams Books website.

 Following the template of Phil Szostak's The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the book is arranged thusly:


  • Foreword by Doug Chiang 
  • Foreword by Neil Lamont
  • Foreword by Gareth Edwards
  • Who's Who
  • Prologue: "Let's Tell That Story"
  • Blue-Sky Development
  • Rogue Team
  • LAHMU
  • Home Is Where the Hero is
  • Troopers
  • Concept Boards
  • YAVIN 4
  • The Mission Briefing
  • K-2SO
  • "A Million Ships": Evolution of the U-Wing
  • A Tactical Approach to Period Sci-Fi
  • JEDHA 
  • Followers of the Force
  • Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus
  • Bor Gullet
  • EADU
  • Imperial Installations
  • Close Encounter on Eadu
  • MUSTAFAR
  • Vader's Lair
  • SCARIF
  • The Final Battle
  • "How You Remember It..."
  • Index
  • Acknowledgments
Pages 74-75 of The Art of Rogue One: A Star Wars, featuring height refernce art and maquettes for K-2SO. (Various artists) ©2016 Abrams Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL). 

My Take

Released on the same day that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story premiered in theaters, The Art of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story follows the by-now familiar template established nearly 40 years ago by Carol Titleman's seminal The Art of Star Wars and its follow-on volumes. 

Granted, like all of Abrams' books in the ongoing series, the content resembles that of Vic Bulluck, Valerie Hoffmann, and Deborah Call's The Art of The Empire Strikes Back, a 1980 sequel to Titleman's book that contains concept art but not the film's script (which was one of the first volume's main selling points). Also, as in The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, this second Disney/Lucasfilm era book doesn't present any of the movie's promotional poster art. 

Nevertheless, Josh Kushins does a good job of describing the long creative process that began in 2012 when John Knoll (who co-invented Adobe Photoshop with his brother before he joined Industrial Light & Magic, Lucasfilm's in-house special effects studio) pitched a story outline titled "Destroyer of Worlds" to the new President and CEO of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy. The book design by Abrams Books' Liam Flanagan is superb, and Lucasfilm editors Frank Parisi, Michael Siglain, and the omnipresent Phil Szostak teamed up once again to curate over 300 eye-popping illustrations that take readers, Star Wars fans, and film art connoisseurs back to that magical space fantasy set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away."   

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