Star Wars: Rogue One set before Episode IV

"Several transmissions were beamed to this ship by Rebel spies"

by Steve Withers
Movies & TV Shows News

16

Star Wars: Rogue One set before Episode IV
After the Star Wars: The Force Awakens panel and new teaser trailer on Thursday, the news keeps coming thick and fast from the Celebration convention.
First of all the full title of Gareth Edwards stand-alone movie will be Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One and it will take place before the original Star Wars. Acting as a direct prequel to Episode IV, the new film will centre on the efforts to steal the plans to the first Death Star. Disney/Lucasfilm wanted the freedom to tell different stories in the Star Wars universe but set in different timelines and using different genres. These spin-off movies will officially be called Anthology films, of which Rogue One is the first.

Rogue One will begin shooting in the summer and so far Felicity Jones has been confirmed as a Rebel soldier. According the director Gareth Edwards, the film will exist in a morally grey area where the good guys do bad things and the bad guys do good things. He also said that the absence of the Jedi is felt in this film and that it's about people without powers being heroes. The heist aspects of the plot were also downplayed in favour of the promise of epic war action with a small strike team.

There was a teaser trailer shown, in which a TIE fighter flies along a canyon before heading up towards a hazy but largely completed Death Star on the horizon. There was also some production art showing Rebel troops attacking something on a rainy night. The director of photography on the film will be Greig Fraser, who shot Zero Dark Thirty and Star Wars veteran Doug Chiang will be one of the production designers. The film, which was originally pitched by another Star Wars veteran ILM's John Knoll, includes effects people who worked on Saving Private Ryan, which gives you an idea of the tone of the film.
The idea of this new film being a 'men-on-a-mission' war movie like Saving Private Ryan is intriguing.
Speaking of stories that take place between Episode III and Episode IV, the second season of Star Wars: Rebels was also announced. The animated series is produced by the same creative team behind the excellent Star Wars: The Clone Wars series and centres around the early days of the rebellion. There has already been the return of a familiar face from The Clone Wars at the end of the first season but the second season promises to up the ante by adding Darth Vader to the mix, voiced once again by James Earl Jones.

Whatever you may feel about Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm one thing's for sure, there's never been a better time to be a Star Wars fan, with Rebels, The Force Awakens, Rogue One and Episode VIII all coming in the next two years. So bring it on!
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