At Star Wars Celebration, we learned what Star Wars: Rogue One will be about...
During today's Star Wars Celebration Rogue One panel, Gareth Edwards revealed the plot of the upcoming standalone film, the first of two in Disney's current movie plans for the franchise.
The film will focus on a group of Rebel spies on a mission to steal the plans to the first Death Star. This would set Rogue One before A New Hope. This would be the first live-action film to take place BETWEEN trilogies. Edwards plans to begin filming sometime this summer.
Lucasfilm Vice President of Development Kiri Hart also noted that “Rogue One” takes place in the same approximate place in the Star Wars timeline as current animated series Star Wars Rebels.
“When there are things that feel they are falling in adjacent places in the timeline, we can look for ways for them to talk to each other,” Hart said. "But we never mandate that. We let the stories evolve the way they want to."
Also revealed is Felicity Jones' role as a Rebel soldier. "She’s the complete package," Edwards said. "We were just very lucky that she was a Star Wars fan, and dropped everything to come on board."
Edwards made it clear that this will be a war film:
"It comes down to a group who don't have magical powers, who somehow have to bring hope to the galaxy," said director Gareth Edwards. "It’s about the fact that god’s not coming to save us, and we’re on our own. The absence of the Jedi is omnipresent in the film. It hangs over the whole movie."
Edwards continued, "Our movie is basically the grey that leads to that polarizing event,” he said. “It’s the reality of war. Good guys are bad, bad guys are good. It’s complicated, layered, a very rich scenario in which to set a movie."
There also appears to be a title change. The film will be officially called Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One. All of the spinoffs/standalone films will now be labeled as "Anthology" films.
“We really wanted freedom to do some films that would be able to stand on their own, tell unique stories that can vary in scale and vary in genre,” Hart said.
Rogue One is set to premiere on Dec. 16, 2016.
