In Anticipation Of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will open nationwide on December 16 and for some, this entry in the long-running Star Wars saga is the most anticipated. After the fan-disappointing prequel trilogy and the good will earned by last years Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rogue One is being anticipated with excitement and high expectations, especially by those fans who felt let down by the prequels.

Rather than continuing the story with another sequel, this time the filmmakers are stepping back to fill in a very important gap in the story between the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy, a portion of the story that many felt was left out of the prequels. Many fans have been eagerly waiting for its omission to be corrected. For those who may not yet know, Rogue One follows the beginnings of the rebellion and their plans to disrupt the Empire’s newest super weapon, The Death Star. It appears that this film will focus on the character of Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), the daughter of Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen), who is one of the Death Stars designers.

The “final” trailer for Rogue One was recently released, and its fast-paced flow of action and quickly edited clips has already been analyzed endlessly by fans in an attempt to garner clues as to what may happen in the film. I won’t go on a long-winded, overly descriptive and completely speculative analysis here, because you can find dozens of those elsewhere on the internet. But what I am prepared to state is that yet again, the trailers for Rogue One look like the film is going to deliver exactly what long-time fans of the series want. They are chock full of battles, droids, Jedis, spaceships, alien characters and — most important of all — real life location shooting and that dirty, worn look that the Star Wars universe had in the original trilogy. It may seem odd, but to this fan those last two things really make these movies. The exotic locales and harsh reality of dusty, grimy worlds lend a certain authenticity that green-screened backgrounds and shiny “new looking” everything just cannot deliver.

I was skeptical after the prequels, but was won over by Star Wars: The Force Awakens. So now, I too am anticipating Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.