The director of Star Wars: Rogue One has been drip-feeding a large Japanese media contingent (and yours truly, the lone Kiwi) in Tokyo with stories from the set of his much-hyped movie.
Filmmaker Gareth Edwards (Godzilla), Felicity Jones (who plays rebel Jyn Erso) and Diego Luna (fellow rebel Cassian Andor) were in the Japanese capital to usher in their new film, which opens across the globe next week.
The trio was determined to keep the story top secret, but they did let spill a few experiences from shooting the film.
For Edwards, the most surreal part of his first Star Wars outing was filming arguably cinema's greatest villain.
"Darth Vader was a dream come true, to get to direct him. It was very strange, we'd be filming him - film sets are very noisy, everyone shouting - but it would go quieter and quieter, and you'd think what's going on? And then Darth Vader would be coming on set," says Edwards.
"And all of these 40, 50-year-old men on the crew would just turn into five-year-olds, their mouths open, no one would say a word.
"We learned very quickly we should do the rehearsal without the costume, because he looked so intimidating. You could give directions to the actor but as soon as that helmet went on, you can't give directions to Darth Vader! You get paranoid the whole time he will force choke you if you make a mistake."
Directing Darth also made it difficult off-set for Edwards.
"It was all so secret, you'd go home and your friends would say, 'what did you do at work today?' And I just couldn't tell them, 'well, I filmed Darth Vader'. Instead it was like 'yeah, just a normal day, making Star Wars'."
Felicity Jones also confirmed another Star Wars alumni visited the Rogue One set - Mark Hamill aka Luke Skywalker.
"I met Mark Hamill. He came to set when we were shooting that sequence, um, towards the end of the film, which we can't talk about," says Jones.
Edwards said the visit was the weirdest day of his life.
"We were filming a scene, I was with Felicity, and we were rehearsing and talking about what to do, and suddenly out of the corner of my eye I see Luke Skywalker. Felicity was saying things to me, but all I could hear was 'blah blah blah', and I said, 'I'm sorry Felicity, but we have to go and meet Luke Skywalker right now'.
"And as we go up to him, as I get closer, he's wearing a Godzilla T-shirt. My previous film was Godzilla, and it was so surreal see my hero as a kid, I've never met him in my life, and I grew up wanting to be Luke Skywalker, and he's wearing Godzilla on his T-shirt. It was probably the weirdest day of my life."
Mexican actor Diego Luna has been Star Wars-mad since he was a kid and was pinching himself daily on set. He too remembers how he felt when Luke Skywalker wandered up to him.
"I was there that day, and he said to us, 'are you ready for your lives to change?' And I was like, 'it just changed right now - I've had a handshake from you, Luke, this is perfect!'
"I don't think he knows what he represents and what he is to us. He was quite an amazing man."
Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has confirmed there will be no sequel to Rogue One, although Edwards believes his film already has the ultimate sequel.
"It begins with our film, and it flows into the original Star Wars movie that we all grew up with. And so there is a sequel, to Rogue One - it's the original George Lucas film."
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story opens in New Zealand cinemas next Thursday, December 15, starting at 12:01am.
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