Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

"Real...This is a real place that we're really in...The thing that interests me about it, is Star Wars was basically very black and white. Our movie is gray."

- Gareth Edwards on Rogue One

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is an upcoming live-action Star Wars film, the first in the Star Wars Anthology Series. The film is set for release on December 16, 2016, and will be directed by Gareth Edwards. Gary Whitta worked on the script throughout 2014, and Chris Weitz took over final scripting duties in 2015. Felicity Jones is the first confirmed star of the film.

The film, which began production in August 2015, is set between the films Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. The plot revolves around a band of resistance fighters uniting to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Galactic Empire's planet-destroying battle station. The theft of the Death Star plans was first referenced in the opening crawl in A New Hope.

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.

Development
"I started thinking about which story would I like to see told? I informally pitched it around...One of the people I pitched it to was Pablo, and he was pretty enthusiastic about it as well...I made an appointment with Kathy and Kiri, pitched the 20-minute version of this, and got a pretty good response."

- John Knoll

The idea of non-episodic Star Wars films came from Star Wars creator George Lucas, who, according to Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, was "really interested in exploring all the stories that existed inside the universe." Lucasfilm settled on calling these non-episodic adventures the Star Wars Anthology Series. The concept for Rogue One, the first Anthology film, was pitched by John Knoll, a visual effects supervisor and the chief creative officer at Industrial Light & Magic.

Knoll came up with the idea for Rogue One when he began to think about the kinds of stories he would like to see told in the Star Wars franchise. Once he had developed an idea, he pitched it to people within Lucasfilm, including Lucasfilm Story Group member Pablo Hidalgo, who was enthusiastic about the idea. This led to a meeting with Kennedy and Kiri Hart, a member of the Story Group and Lucasfilm's vice president of development. Kennedy, who said she was president "for about 20 minutes" when she had the discussion with Knoll, thought it was a great idea and that "there was no way" she could say no to the idea. Like Kennedy, Hart was "immediately excited about" the film.

Once Lucasfilm decided to produce the film, they set out to find a director. Gareth Edwards, who had directed Monsters and who, at the time, was directing Godzilla, was hired for the job. Edwards was brought on early so he could be involved as early as possible in the creative process. Gary Whitta, who had written The Book of Eli and After Earth, was hired to write the film's screenplay. The team decided to create a film that felt real, as if it was taking place in a real location; and one that was set within the gray areas of Star Wars, as opposed to the clear morality of the original Star Wars trilogy. During the writing process, Whitta coined the film's title of Rogue One.

On March 12, 2015, it was announced that Chris Weitz would take over screenwriting duties from Whitta and that the title of the film was Rogue One. It was further announced Felicity Jones, who had been nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in The Theory of Everything, had been cast in the film. One month later, at Celebration Anaheim, Edwards and the creative team announced that the film was about resistance fighters stealing the Death Star plans. A brief teaser trailer was shown for Celebration attendees, depicting the Death Star far off in the distance on a jungle world, and the team elaborated on their realistic approach to the film. Lucasfilm was not able to promote the film anywhere outside of Celebration Anaheim, however, during the summer of 2015, due to the similarities between the titles of Rogue One and the then-upcoming film Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. The title of Rogue Nation was registered with the Motion Picture Association of America prior to Rogue One, leading to the embargo on Rogue One promotion.

Edwards used ILM's new developments in virtual reality to add in pre-visualizing the film. The film began principal photography in London in August 2015. This was announced during the D23 Expo that same month. Additionally, a StarWars.com blog post revealed the full cast for the film: alongside Felicity Jones would be starring: Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Forest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, and Riz Ahmed.

Continuity
"Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. 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."

- The opening crawl of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope

Rogue One is set between the films Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, during the Age of the Empire. The film revolves around a group of resistance fighters who unite to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Galactic Empire's deep space mobile battle station that is capable of destroying entire planets. The theft of the plans was first referenced in the opening crawl of A New Hope, which described the event as the Rebel Alliance's "first victory against the evil Galactic Empire." The crawl further states that, "During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans" to the Death Star. The opening scenes of A New Hope deal with that battle's aftermath, with Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan fleeing from the Empire with the plans in order to deliver them to the Rebel Alliance. The Death Star is ultimately destroyed in A New Hope after the princess and her companions&mdash;Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Chewbacca, and the droids R2-D2 and C-3PO&mdash;deliver the plans to the Rebellion and a weakness in the station is discovered.

Unlike the previous live-action films, Rogue One does not revolve around the Jedi. Rather, the film is about a group of people who do not have the ability to use the Force and have to find a way to bring hope to a galaxy ruled by the Empire. Also unlike the original trilogy, which provided a black and white view of good and evil, Edwards stated at Celebration Anaheim that Rogue One "is gray" and that the film could be described as "Real...This is a real place that we're really in..."