The first spinoff Star Wars film now has a title. Rogue One will be the first official solo, standalone Star Wars film.
That’s not all. Rogue One will be helmed by Godzilla director Gareth Edwards, and Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything) has been confirmed to star. The film will begin production this summer in London, and is scheduled to reach theaters on December 16, 2016.
Here’s everything that we know about Rogue One. The story will build from an idea hatched by John Knoll, longtime visual effects supervisor and chief creative officer at Industrial Light & Magic. Disney states that this will be the first film in "a unique series of big-screen adventures that explores the characters and events beyond the core Star Wars saga." Edwards was handed the reign to this solo Star Wars film months ago (though it’s only now just being confirmed). And as we reported earlier, Chris Weitz (Cinderella) will handle the screenwriting duties.
Rogue One likely references the title given to Rogue Leader, or the commander of the Rebel Alliance's most elite starfighter squadron, Rogue Squadron. The title is one of honor and respect, and is usually handed out to the best pilot in the Defense Force. There have been multiple Rogue Leaders over the years, from Wedge Antilles to Tycho Celchu, though none have been quite as famous as a certain Jedi you might have heard of: Luke Skywalker.
Naturally, with each piece of new information, we open up a fresh can of interesting questions. There’s no mention in the wave of new information as to where and when on the established Star Wars timeline that Rogue One will take place. We have been hearing for a while that the solo Star Wars movies would be prequels, using younger versions of classic characters like Boba Fett and Han Solo. (Not Luke Skywalker, interestingly, though he’d fit nicely in a movie about the Rebel Alliance.) However, that hasn’t been confirmed about this being a prequel, so all that we know is that Felicity Jones will be involved, and we can expect more casting to come later.
We were beyond excited by this shot in the trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens:
Can you imagine a whole movie filled with X-Wing action? We can hardly wait.
