New story, new characters — Rogue One is not Star Wars Episode VIII but a stand-alone film exploring one of the mysteries of the saga: How did the Rebel Alliance get the Death Star plans?
In the first Star Wars film — A New Hope (the first episode of the original 1977 trilogy), we can read in the opening crawl: “During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire’s ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet.”
For decades, all over the world, Star Wars fans had this question in mind: who stole the plans?
When the Alliance to Restore the Republic learned of the existence of the Death Star, resistance fighters were sent on a mission to steal the Death Star plans.
The Rebellion against the Empire knew this was essential for its survival.
This is the story of Rogue One. The Death Star couldn’t have been destroyed by Luke Skywalker without the action of this rebel unit.
Rogue One is not a prequel, a sequel or something else. It is an independent movie from the Star Wars galaxy.
Directed by Gareth Edwards (Monsters, Godzilla), Rogue One explores the characters and events beyond the main Star Wars saga.
The idea of Rogue One came from John Knoll (visual effect supervisor) and chief creative officer at Industrial Light & Magic, the company founded in 1975 by Star Wars creator George Lucas. He worked on Star Wars episodes I, II and III.
In 2012 Disney bought Lucasfilm. Disney wanted to create a Star Wars anthology series based on unexplored Star Wars mysteries. John Knoll proposed his idea to the company, the Rogue One project was launched.
British actress Felicity Jones is playing Jyn Erso, the hero of the story who leads the group on a mission to acquire the Death Star plans.