Scarif

Scarif was a verdant, beautiful if relatively small world, measuring just over nine thousand kilometers in diameter. It had a remote and isolated galactic location in the Abrion sector of the southeast Outer Rim Territories. A deep-blue world speckled with clouds, Scarif was comprised of tropical, volcanic island chains rising from clear, shallow oceans. Deeper oceans teeming with life were surrounded by rocky archipelagos. The planet's mantle was filled with dense metals that became valuable in starship construction. Scarif's sandy beaches were tranquil and idyllic, and some led into jungle canopies filled with wildlife, including areca nut palm trees and the giant peetalex sea grape, which offered natural protection. The world had a temperate and comfortable climate and from the surface appeared as a tropical paradise despite its challenging ecosystem and dangerous predators.

The Galactic Empire constructed its Imperial Center of Military Research across a wheel of islets and landmasses connected by sandy tombolos and artificial transit tubes. The region was surrounded by a volcanic island covered in jungles, and the central islet housed the monolithic Citadel Tower. The Imperial installations on the planet were known to be one of the very few sites were pure, refined coaxium fuel was stored, other than Mercy Island.

Although Scarif's planetary mantle was filled with dense metals valuable in starship construction, its remote location deep within the Outer Rim Territories meant that supplying shipyards of the Core Worlds proved too costly. At one time, a small resort was based on Scarif, where the Scarif Slush was served. Strono Tuggs tried the drink at the resort. However, the Galactic Empire saw Scarif as a potential place to house their most classified projects away from the inspection distance of the Imperial Senate. To this end, the Empire built a major security complex in the planet's northern hemisphere, garrisoned by a special deployment of the Tarkin Initiative, centered on a Citadel Tower. Large swaths of land were excavated in order to build starships, and a high-altitude Shield Gate station allowed entry past the planetary deflector shield, which itself was protected by several Imperial Star Destroyers. Scarif became the principal construction facility for the Empire's vast war machine.

Over the years, various officers treated Scarif as a place for an unofficial retirement, where they could neglect their duty in the comfort of a tropical paradise. Codenamed Project Stardust, the designs for an armored battle station capable of destroying entire worlds, the DS-1 Death Star Mobile Battle Station, were kept in the massive databanks of the Citadel while the battle station itself was constructed over the planet Geonosis under the supervision of Director Orson Callan Krennic. Around 9 BBY, the Death Star was moved from Geonosis to Scarif to continue its construction and keep its existence a secret. It continued under the supervision of Krennic.

In the final stages of its construction, including the assembly of its superlaser, work on the Death Star was being finished in orbit of Scarif thanks to Eta-class supply barges delivering materials, which were then assembled by construction droids. Despite the importance of the project, the officers of the garrison, commanded by General Sotorus Ramda, became complacent, mainly because of the confidence placed in Scarif's defenses which included at least two Imperial-class Star Destroyers, a Cantwell-class Arrestor Cruiser as well as many TIE/ln space superiority starfighters stored in the hangars of the shield gate.

The Battle of Scarif was a battle between the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire, taking place in the year 1 BBY. The Rebels had received information from Jyn Erso that the Death Star plans were being held in the Citadel Tower, and decided to attempt to capture them. The group successfully infiltrated the tower and successfully managed to transmit the plans to Princess Leia Organa and the Alliance Fleet.

As the battle came to its end, Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin ordered the Death Star to fire a precise single reactor blast at the planet in an effort to halt the transmission, as well as to eliminate his longtime rival Krennic. The blast did not destroy Scarif itself but dissipated its planetary shield and obliterated the Citadel Tower, as well as everyone in its vicinity. The Death Star's superlaser boiled the oceans of Scarif, burning a part of the planet's surface. The Scarif Slush recipe had been smuggled off of Scarif by that point, allowing the drink to survive the destruction of its namesake.

Scarif is a tropical planet that was created for the 2016 Star Wars anthology film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The first footage of the planet was shown in the Rogue One teaser trailer that was released on April 7, 2016. The planet's islands were filmed in the Maldives, while the interior of the Citadel Tower was filmed at the Canary Wharf stop on the London Underground.

Early in Rogue Ones production, Scarif was conceived as a sort of "dry dock" for the Death Star, with an immense portion of the planet's surface excavated in order to house the battle station.

Director Gareth Edwards said the planet's nature came about after the crew noticed how George Lucas had been inspired by every theater of World War II except the Pacific front.

At the 2017 South by Southwest film festival, Edwards revealed that the planet's name, Scarif, came from a misspelling of his name on a coffee cup, telling the audience, "I must have said, 'It's Gareth,' and they wrote 'Scarif."

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