Special effects pioneer Dennis Muren reveals things you didn’t know about the Death Star attack.
EW spoke with special effects pioneer Dennis Muren about creating the sequence.
Originally the fight didnt just take place in one deadly Death Star trench, but several.
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Originally there were three trenches of different widths, I remember shooting tests on those, Muren says.
The first fly-through was fairly wide.
As fixing the mistake would have taken a week, Cantwell went to Lucas suggested a trench.
And yet, canonically speaking, there are still multiple Death Star trenches.
According to the LucasArts CD-ROMStar Wars: Behind the Magic,the enormous space station has 18 trenches.
The clearly visible meridian trench in the center of the model is just one of them.
If that doesnt entirely make sense, thats okay.
Its just there to give you cues as to how fast youre going, he says.
You dont have to understand it; the Empire understood it when they made it.
Another element that doesnt quite make sense, but is very emotionally effective: The sun.
That was always in [the plan], the Falcon flying out of the sun, Muren says.
Whats perhaps most impressive about the sequence is how well it all holds up.
The ships feel like theyre reallythere, and the perfect editing by Marcia Lucas ratchets the drama and suspense.
Muren gave some reasons why CG just often doesnt look as convincing as the old school techniques.
I was following the laws of physics and inertia and weight.
The result was an action sequence that was truly one in a million.
For more, readEWs entire cover storyinsideThe Rise of Skywalker, and check out oureight new exclusive photos.
