Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is finally revealed

Last weekend at Disney’s D23 con Star Wars fans got more news then they were expecting. A few days before director J.J. Abrams had said there would be no trailer or behind the scenes footage of The Force Awakens. I wasn’t expecting any to begin with. Instead Disney focused on all matters Star Wars besides the upcoming episode 7 (slated for December 18 if you haven’t heard). The most prominent focus of attention was the first the first of the Anthology Star Wars movies – Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The movie, which is directed by Gareth Edwards (Godzilla) is slated for release on December 16th 2016, just 6 months before Episode 8!

Until now I have found it hard to get excited about anything Star Wars besides the sequel trilogy. I mean, a Han Solo movie? A Boba Fett movie? Isn’t Disney just catering too much to fandom. Can such movies do something new for fans? Rogue One was somewhat of an exception to my cynical pessimism. Everybody knows that the first Star Wars movie features a title card that describes how the Rebel Alliance just won its first major battle. The first scene of the movie show Princess Leia being pursued by Darth Vader a she is in the procession of the Death Star plans. It’s back story that even the Expanded Universe only recently got round to.

At D23 Disney formally showed what Rogue One is all about. It is about a rebel cell attempting to infiltrate Imperial facilities trying to steal the aforementioned plans. In essence it is Where Eagles Dare meets Star Wars. While it may not be Episode 7 it at least is getting me excited. Disney also announced an extended cast line-up. It includes Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything), Diego Luna (Milk), Ben Mendelsohn (The Dark Knight Rises), Donnie Yen (Blade II), Forest Whitaker (The Butler), Riz Ahmed (Nightcrawler) and the newly announced Mads Mikkelsen (Hannibal) and Alan Tudyk (Serenity).

With choosing such what happened before episode 4 as the major feature of the story director Gareth Edwards is taking an awful risk (no pun intended). Rogue One can become the next Empire Strikes Back or it could become the next Fantastic Four! Fans will want to see Darth Vader, Grand Moff Tarkin, everybody associated with the Rebel Alliance and even Darth Sidious. Yet, Rogue One has been described as an origins story. They often feature just a few core characters but see a lot of character development. In the meantime fans can rejoice in knowing Disney is backing Star Wars in big way. they are even going to model two of their parks after the franchise. Until Force Friday (September 4th I don’t expect any major announcements).

Enjoy the cast photos below!.