It’s been a few good weeks for the movies, andOppenheimerisstill rocking movie theaters everywherewith the tragedy ofJ. Robert Oppenheimer(Cillian Murphy), the so-called “father of the atomic bomb.“Christopher Nolan’s biopic shows how the nuclear physicist saw his creation have its purposes twisted and used to kill thousands of innocent people until he became an advocate against it. But a similar story has already been told in theaters, one set a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. If you’re not connecting the dots, we’re talking aboutRogue One: A Star Wars Storyand one of its main characters, Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen).
Although the 2016 prequel toA New Hopeis mostly focused on the ragtag band of rebels that stole the Death Star plans from the Empire, it also tells a little about how the planet-killing super weapon came to be, along with the companion novel,Catalyst: A Rogue One Story. Like the bombs created by Oppenheimer, the Death Star is also the ultimate destructive power, capable of literally destroying worlds. Its purpose was not only military but also political, as the Empire expected systems to fall in line, as much as the U.S. government expected atomic power to ultimately be exclusive to them.
The Tragedy of Oppenheimer Was the Inspiration for ‘Rogue One’
The original idea for what would eventually becomeRogue Onecame from legendary ILM visual effects supervisorJohn Knoll, who’s been working onStar Warssince the Prequel Trilogy. His first treatment for the story was named “Destroyer of Worlds”, inspired by the Hindu verses that Oppenheimer famously used to express his regret at developing the atomic bomb. Although the idea for the movie was to ultimately depict the stealing of the Death Star plans by Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) and the Rogue One team, the key to the development of the movie was her father, Galen Erso.
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The story in itself already sets the highest possible stakes — if Jyn doesn’t succeed, entire planets could be destroyed by the Empire using the Death Star — but it also needed to carry emotional weight, and that’s where Galen comes in. His role is to serve as a motivation for Jyn to join the mission with the Rebels, but he also has his own story arc as a scientist who has his research twisted and weaponized by the Empire. Akyber crystal researcher, he is responsible for the design and production of the Death Star super laser, powered by the Force-attuned gems.
A few years before Knoll pitched his idea to Lucasfilm,Gareth Edwardswas a visual effects artist on a BBC documentary calledHiroshima, which came out in 2005. Edwards would eventually take the job asRogue Onedirector, buthis work onHiroshimagave him plenty of historical knowledge about this part of World War II, including the development of the atomic bomb by Oppenheimer. In line with the core idea of Knoll’s, the production got the codename “Los Alamos,” a direct reference to the location where Oppenheimer and his team of physicists worked on Project Manhattan.
With those guidelines, the story ofRogue Onewas developed with the parallel between the Death Star and the atomic bomb in mind. Both are super weapons of planet-killing capabilities, designed by men who may have joined such projects with the best of intentions, but ended up bitterly regretting their involvement once theirtrue destructive powerswere revealed. As Galen says in his holographic message to Jyn, “There’s no better name” for the Death Star, and his words are a sort of parallel to Oppenheimer’s “destroyer of worlds” quote because that’s what he ended up becoming.
‘Star Wars’ Often Draws Inspiration From Archetypes Like Oppenheimer
The parallel between Galen Erso and J. Robert Oppenheimer is certainly an interesting one to draw inspiration from, and it’s something that only someone who’s beena long-time fan ofStar Warslike John Knollcould come up with. We know all the cinematic and artistic influences behindGeorge Lucas' vision for the franchise back in the late 1970s, as well as the political parallels with the war in Vietnam, but World War II has also been a constant source of ideas for the movies, from starship design and general aesthetic to whole action sequences, like the Death Star trench run inA New Hope.
Only what makes J. Robert Oppenheimer a good inspiration isn’t necessarily the fact that the better part of his tragedy took place mostly during World War II, but that he ultimately became a sort of mythical archetype himself. AsRian Johnsononce wisely put it, “Myths are made to reflect the most difficult transitions we go through,” and, in that sense,Oppenheimer is more than a cautionary tale, his tragedy is a modern adaptation of the myth of Prometheus, who stole the fire from the gods and was later forced to spend eternity suffering as a consequence (in fact, Christopher Nolan’sOppenheimerscript is even based on a biography titledAmerican Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer). The mythical qualities of his story are what makes it appealing toStar Wars, it’s the kind of framework the franchise has always used to build its narrative and characters.
Galen Erso’s story may have a few key differences when compared to Oppenheimer’s, of course. For example, he ended up dying before witnessing the destruction his creation could unleash, and he still managed to quietly undermine the Death Star by laying a trap beneath all the destructive power it boasted on the surface. Oppenheimer was indeed deemed a traitor by somedue to his “communist connections”, as Galen was later discovered by Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), and he did become an activist against nuclear power, but this is far from causing the same consequences as Galen’s trap, unfortunately. But what matters forStar Warsis the similarities between them, as much as the historical and mythical qualities carried by Oppenheimer. It’s no surprise that John Knoll would come up with this sort of parallel, it takes a fan to see this kind of thing between the lines of real history and work it creatively into a new story.
