As if the new teaser trailer of the eagerly awaited Star Wars Episode VII - The Force Awakens wasn’t enough, thousands of excited fans at the Star Wars Celebration convention in Anaheim, California learned also about the plot of Star Wars: Rogue One, the first of the, so far, two planned Star Wars spin-off films.
The rough outline of the plot has been revealed to thousands of exhilarated fans by British director Gareth Edwards, who is to helm the first of the big-screen stand-alone adventures exploring stories of the characters and events outside the core Star Wars saga.
Film’s director Gareth Edwards was joined in a panel discussion by Kathleen Kennedy, the president of Lucasfilm and the brand manager of the Star Wars franchise, as well as Lucasfilm’s Kiri Hart and Pablo Hidalgo, and Industrial Light and Magic’s John Knoll (who came with the original idea for the Rogue One).
The teaser shows a lone TIE-fighter flying over a ravine on a forested planet with the Death Star visible in orbit.
Edwards divulged to the assembled audience the rough outline of the film’s plot, that will revolve around a rogue group of resistance fighters who unite for a daring mission to steal the Death Star plans and bring a new hope to the Galaxy, before treating them to some concept art and even a short teaser video, featuring a TIE-fighter flying above a heavily-forested gorge with the Death Star orbiting the planet just visible in the background, that caused a packed room to erupt in cheers.
The movie will be set before the first part of the original Star Wars series, later renamed ‘Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope’. The first film of the Star Wars saga was released in 1977 and began with the Empire’s pursuit of Tantive IV, a spaceship carrying Princess Leia with the blueprints of the Death Star – the Galactic Empire’s most powerful weapon.
It then logically follows that the rebels from the upcoming ‘Rogue One’ film will succeed in their effort to appropriate the Death Star drafts and hand them over to Leia Organa, Princess of Alderaan and a member of the Imperial Senate.
Edwards explained that because the Jedi Knights were all but wiped out in the preceding film ‘Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith’, his story will be different from the other Star Wars movies.
He said: [since ‘Rogue One’ takes place in the immediate aftermath of the destruction of the Jedi order] “The absence of the Jedi is omnipresent.” Instead of characters relying on the power of an unpredictable Force to save them, the film will centre around real, grounded human issues. “It’s about the fact that God’s not coming to save us … we have to do this ourselves”, said Edwards, before continuing: “It comes down to a group of individuals that don’t have magic powers … that have to bring hope to the galaxy.”
Edwards, a lifelong Star Wars fan, also pointed out that in the previous instalments of the Star Wars saga characters were clearly defined as good or bad, that it was a very “black and white” universe. He stated that he wanted ‘Rogue One’ to be more complex than that, and that he will focus on the “shades of grey” in the galaxy far, far away – where the lines between good guys and bad guys aren’t so clearly defined – basically, sometimes the bad guys can be good and the good guys can be bad.
Felicity Jones is so far the only confirmed cast member of the forthcoming Star Wars spin-off film. According to Kathleen Kennedy, the choice of the British Oscar-nominee who will play a rebel soldier, is a deliberate attempt to have a mixture of realistic and powerful characters of both sexes in the movie.
Additionally, Kennedy announced that all the future stand-alone Star Wars films will be referred to as the ‘Star Wars Anthology’ films, that will delve into previously untapped corners of the established Star Wars universe.
Kennedy credited George Lucas with encouraging the idea for the anthology films. “It was really George’s idea, not only picking up the saga again – which he never envisioned he would do – he was really interested in exploring all the stories that might exist within the universe.”
Earlier, director Josh Trank (Chronicle) was announced as the director of the second, as yet untitled, Star Wars Anthology feature film.
Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One starts filming in the UK in summer 2015 and the movie will hit the cinemas on 16 December 2016.