First Star Wars Anthology Film Star Wars: Rogue One Plot Details Revealed

In a panel on the final day of Star Wars Celebration, director Gareth Edwards revealed the details behind a brand new Star Wars spinoff film, Star Wars: Rogue One.

According to Edwards, the movie is set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. As this is a story set in a time where Jedi are essentially gone, it offers a very interesting perspective on the Star Wars stories. /Film reports that during the panel Edwards said, “It’s about the fact that God’s not coming to save us. The absence of the Jedi hangs over the movie.” Judging by this detail and the way in which he emphasizes that this will very much be a war movie, it wouldn’t take a force jump to guess that it’s going to have a much darker tone.

Edwards also shared information on the plot, saying that it’ll focus on the crew who set out to steal the Death Star plans. He also confirmed that one member of this crew is Felicity Jones, who plays a rebel soldier. She was chosen because they thought she could bring “fear, humor, and warmth” to the role, instead of just playing the typical warrior.

Unfortunately, the teaser / sizzle reel they showed at the panel isn’t available online, but /Film provides a brilliant description:

A card with ‘December 2016’ fades in and out, with a sound that is somewhere between a slow Inception horn and a lightsaber. Then a familiar voice: Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi, saying ‘For more than a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the old Republic. Before the dark times. Before the Empire.’

As he speaks, the teaser fades in on a tracking shot, high up through a forested canyon. We hear a TIE Fighter pass overhead, and see the ship move forward into frame as the camera continues to push forward. We see, dominating the sky, the outline of what could be a moon. But that’s no moon, it’s a… well, you know what it is. The Death Star, under construction. Music swells and the screen goes black. The Rogue One logo comes up, and we hear radio voices, like troops communicating during combat. The chatter gets more frantic and loud as light strobes on the logo, which finally breaks up as the sound cuts out.

Star Wars: Rogue One is the first in a series of films called the Star Wars Anthology that are intended to stand alone as “spin-offs” of the trilogies.

(via /Film)

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Jessica Lachenal

Jessica Lachenal is a writer who doesn’t talk about herself a lot, so she isn’t quite sure how biographical info panels should work. But here we go anyway. She's the Weekend Editor for The Mary Sue, a Contributing Writer for The Bold Italic (thebolditalic.com), and a Staff Writer for Spinning Platters (spinningplatters.com). She's also been featured in Model View Culture and Frontiers LA magazine, and on Autostraddle. She hopes this has been as awkward for you as it has been for her.

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