So a few days ago, Rogue One writer Chris Weitz asked Neil deGrasse Tyson for science help. Star Wars has always had a very tentative relationship with real science – it’s just not that kind of movie, kid – so this has resulted in some spirited discussion in certain areas of fandom.
Now, by no means do I think Weitz’s question will turn out be the very lynchpin of the film, but if the dude wants to make some random thing scientifically accurate, I’m not gonna disapprove, either. After all, what is space opera but a big melting pot of genres?
Tyson hasn’t replied publicly. But he did once tell Business Insider that he never got into Star Wars. “Maybe because they made no attempt to portray real physics. At all.”
This has still made a few headlines, so if nothing else, it’s turned into a cute little stealth marketing trick.
And, for the record, @RogueOne2016 is not an official account.
I feel like Star Wars uses science as a starting point. The writers of Star Wars get a cool idea from real scientific research and then go crazy with it and by the end it’s no longer scientifically accurate at all. An example: the “nebula cloud” Anakin and Co. travel through in the Clone Wars.That’s what I’m guessing Weitz is doing.