Spoilers Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - Grading & Discussion

[Tuskin38]

We know that they can't track ships through Hyperspace without a tracking device, so there would have been some time between Rogue One and the beginning of ANH. Unless Vader or his Troops just happened to be carrying one.

 

[Ithekro]

That is what Leia and Captain Antilles thought in the Radio Drama....they were wrong. Not only did Vader track them, he almost came out of hyperspace on top of them. Basically, the time it took to get from Scarif to Tatooine, plus a few minutes, because Leia's ship probably came out of hyperspace along the normal approach vector, while Vader's came in much closer to catch her ship.

There are three options here:

1. Vader had his ship calculate their destination based on last known heading.
2. There was a tracking device or spy on the ship to relay the coordinates so Vader's ship could come out of hyperspace "pretty close" to the target. He wasn't flying down the hallways, but next time.
3. He followed them via the Force.

 

[Reverend]

^ I would guess it's a little bit of both 1 and 3. 2 doesn't seem all that likely.

Out of interest, I found myself flipping through Rinzer's Making of Star Wars book today and got to reading the material Lucas dictated for the licencee people right after ANH's release. It's a bit odd since it's mostly written in first person, but there's a bit that covers what he thought immediately preceded the movie (incase it's not obvious enough, this is from Leia's perspective): -

"I was actually on my way back from the Senate to Alderaan when we intercepted some spies that had been working on the Death Star, and there was a battle between the Rebel forces and the Imperial forces in which a lot of the star fleet was destroyed. During the process of that battle, we flew near the station that we were supposed to fly near and intercepted a message from our spies. We flew on and then were chased, but we didn’t really take part in the battle."
​

Not a huge amount to go on, but it seems the intent was always that Vader chased them there straight from the battle. Incidentally, this is probably what the extra NPR material was extrapolated from.

 

[crookeddy]

Pics from a Rogue One screening in Los Angeles at the unbelievably ornate Los Angeles Theater.

 

[Smellmet]

Wow. They are stunning photos.