Star Wars: Rogue One's climactic Scarif planet got its name from a Starbucks barista cup screw-up
'They wrote Scarif on the cup and I was like, ‘That sounds like Star Wars''
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Your support makes all the difference.A lot of pressure comes with creating events and environments that will be entered into the Star Wars canon forevermore, but inspiration for them can come from the most mundane places.
Scarif was the most important planet in Rogue One, holding the blueprints for the Death Star and playing host to the film’s action-packed climax. It was unwittingly named by an apparently hard of hearing barista in a Starbucks.
Director Gareth Edwards explained an interview with CNN:
“Yeah, so as a director you’re like, ‘I want to get my name in there,’ but how do you do it? Gary was writing and he was naming loads of things. At one point he said, ‘It’s your turn to name something, Gareth.’ I was really looking forward to this. I’m like, ‘OK, this is a big deal. I’ve got to pick a good name.’ I was like, ‘What do you want me to name?’ He said, ‘The end planet.’ The whole third-act thing. I was like, ‘OK, let me think about it. OK, give me a moment.’
“I go over to get a coffee from Starbucks. I’m thinking, ‘What could be the name? It could be this. Maybe we could use that?’ Then at the very end, she gives me the drink and they must have asked my name and I must have said, ‘It’s Gareth,’ but they heard ‘Scarif.’ They wrote Scarif on the cup and I was like, ‘That sounds like Star Wars.’
"I went back in and I just give it to Gary and went, ‘It’s called Scarif.'”
Ironically, though Scarif very much isn’t a name, the mere fact that it’s now part of the Star Wars universe means that sooner or later it probably will be.
We can only hope Endor and Coruscant have similar stories behind them revolving around George Lucas and bungling beverage chains.
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