Starbucks Barista Error Becomes Planet in ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’

With every new Star Wars film, the people at Lucasfilm/Disney are tasked with coming up with a slew of new sing-songy nonsense names for Jedi knights, bad guys, planets, and aliens, some of which will be slapped across officially branded merchandise. As it turns out, the process of coming up with these titles is not always very formal or scientific. In a new interview with CNN, filmmaker Gareth Edwards reveals that a mistake from a Starbucks barista made its way into his monster hit for the franchise, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

A few years ago, when the script for Rogue One was still being written, screenwriter Gary Whitta told Edwards that it was his turn to name one of the planets that would play a major role in the film. While mulling over the possibilities, Edwards decided to go to Starbucks to refuel. The director tells CNN:

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.”

And so that’s how the tropical planet that’s the stage for the third act of Rogue One got its name. Upproxx points out that some intrepid Star Wars fans have already created T-shirts that mashup the Starbucks logo with the name Scarif and imagery from the film.

• Behind the scenes of 'Rogue One' with director Gareth Edwards [CNN]
• A Starbucks Barista Bungle Named One Of The Most Important Planets In The ‘Star Wars’ Mythos [Uproxx]