5 Reasons To Be Excited For Rogue One

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is coming out this December, but it seems like far too many people aren’t excited about it and are looking forward to 2017’s Episode VIII more. And that’s a shame because there are a lot of reasons to get excited for the new Star Wars movie coming out in 2016…

The Director

Rogue One is being directed by Gareth Edwards, the director of the awesome new Godzilla movie and someone who is a hardcore Star Wars fan. His Godzilla was awesome (people joke about Godzilla’s screen time, but that’s how the original Japanese movies were too), and giving him a Star Wars movie is a brilliant move on Lucasfilm’s part.

The Script

Despite the first draft being done by Prequel hater Gary Whitta, Disney then brought in their Cinderella writer (and Prequel hater) Chris Weitz to finish the movie. Despite them working on the movie the more important thing is that recent rumors have said that Christopher McQuarrie did a pass on the script and if true that’s something to be hyped over. His Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation was a better Bond movie than Spectre was in 2015 and if he was involved in a Star Wars script it’s reason to be excited for Rogue One.

The Characters

You have a lead character who may be the daughter of the scientist who fixed the Death Star design flaws teaming up with a robot and a band of ragtag characters on a incredibly risky mission to steal the plans for the Death Star. Sure, there’s not a Jedi in the mix, but you have a very interesting group going on a gritty Star Wars adventure. Vader will also likely play a big role in the movie, so you get another chance to see one of the greatest villains in film history on the big screen.

The Story

Set immediately before A New Hope, Rogue One explains how during a 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. While some people get confused an think that Bothans stole the plans, if you pay attention to Return of the Jedi the dialog explains that the Bothan spies delivered the location of the second Death Star to the Rebels and the fact that the Emperor himself was overseeing the final stages of construction. So Rogue One is going to be a definitely cool bit of Star Wars canon played out on the big screen.

The Tone

At Star Wars Celebrations, Gareth Edwards described Rogue One as a war movie where there won’t be any Jedi to save the day. That seems a lot like the tone of the popular Rogue Squadron Legends novels and the new Battlefront: Twilight Company. It’s a type of story that’s been done in Star Wars before, just never in a movie. That’s another reason to be excited to see Rogue One this December.