Star Wars: Rogue One just got a synopsis. Time to steal the Death Star plans!
At the final day of Star Wars celebration, Star Wars: Rogue One director Gareth Edwards joined host Pablo Hidalgo, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, and the Story Group’s Kiri Hart. Other Star Wars stand alone film director Josh Trank (Chronicle, Fantastic Four) was supposed to appear too, but he’s sick.
According to Kennedy, George Lucas “was really interested in exploring all the stories that existed inside the universe.” We previously reported that Lucas wanted to make Episode VII himself before selling LucasFilm. It’s likely that any stand alone movies wouldn’t have been directed by him.
We also found out these films won’t be called stand alones at all. “We’re extremely excited about these,” Hart said. “We’re going to be calling them Anthology films. I think this as opportunity for us to tap into emergent directing talent out there and do some things that are unexpected. There are very few filmmakers that we bring into the room that don’t tell us [how Star Wars influenced them].”
Edwards revealed that when he saw the Star Wars: The Force Awakens teaser trailer he, like you, was reduced to tears. He could “feel the tears… I was like, don’t cry… as soon as Han turned up, this tear just went down.”
Edwards hasn’t begun filming Star Wars: Rogue One yet, but that didn’t stop him from bringing a teaser trailer. It began with dialogue from Obi-Wan from the original Star Wars. Obi-Wan says “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.” It then follows a TIE fighter through a canyon and reveals the Death Star in the sky.
All copies of the teaser have been removed by YouTube and Disney due to copyright, but here’s a pretty accurate adaptation of the trailer that someone created with LEGO:
Here’s the film’s official description: “A band of resistance fighters unite for a daring mission to steal the Death Star plans in the Star Wars Anthology film, Rogue One.”
According to Edwards, Rogue One is set between Episode III and Episode IV, but more on the Episode IV side and doesn’t revolve around Jedi. “It comes down to a group of individuals who don’t have magical powers that have to somehow bring hope to the galaxy,” Edwards said. He revealed that Felicity Jones will be playing a rebel soldier.
The title card and concept art were revealed at the panel:
This is what the Rogue One logo looks like, giving you an idea of how the stand alone movies will be presented pic.twitter.com/JW5wl5qixZ
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) April 19, 2015
Rogue One concept art! pic.twitter.com/CGuLjz1IOC
— Bryan Bishop (@bcbishop) April 19, 2015
Many of the crew members working on Rogue One worked on Saving Private Ryan and Black Hawk Down, and that’s not by accident. “It’s called Star WARS,” Edwards said. Zero Dark Thirty cinematographer Greig Fraser will shoot the film.
“This is a real place that we’re really in,” Edwards said. “The thing that interests me about it, is Star Wars was basically very black and white. Our movie is gray.” This sounds like the riskiest move a Star Wars film could make, and that’s very exciting. Grey characters don’t really sell toys, but they can often make for better movies. We’re in.