Five Things To Know About Rogue One

Get ready to hit the beach! Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will be in theaters on December 16th, 2016! So what do you need to know before you head to the movies?

It’s Star Wars, but it’s not.

Rogue One is the first in a series of standalone Star Wars films. (Other planned films include stories about Han Solo and Boba Fett.) So the film exists in the Star Wars universe, but it shouldn’t be considered a part of the Star Wars saga. The film has many of the same elements, mentions of some of the same characters and a story line pulled from the opening crawl of A New Hope. So it’s Star Wars, but not Star Wars.

There’s no opening crawl.

I hope you don’t consider that a spoiler, since it’s been confirmed for a while now that they were skipping a crawl. In case you hadn’t heard, however, I thought you should have the warning. I’ll confess to being a bit disappointed, since it’s so quintessentially Star Wars and really sets the tone for me when I’m watching the movies. Which, if you think about it, is exactly why they didn’t include the crawl. It’s a fairly minor quibble in the grand scheme of things.

It’s a little grim.

I’ve joked more than once since seeing the trailers that it looked like a romantic beach comedy. And honestly, Scarif, with it’s gently blowing palm trees and crystal blue water would be an ideal vacation spot. You know, if it wasn’t for the heavy presence of Storm Troopers and the Imperial Security Complex holding all of the Empire’s secrets there on the beach. There are definitely some light moments and jokes in the film, but you can’t have a Star Wars story without the presence of war. It earns the PG-13 rating. That said, children who’ve been OK seeing pervious Star Wars films should be just fine seeing Rogue One.

My favorites may surprise you.

If you’ve read any of my past posts about Star Wars, you’ve probably seen me wax poetic over my love of Han Solo and Poe Dameron. That would probably lead you to expect a newfound affection for Cassian Andor. And although I do like him, my absolute favorites in the film were Chirrut Îmwe and Baze Malbus. They’re total badasses and I’ll leave it at that. You can see for yourself why I’m a fan when you hit the theater.

It might blow your mind.

When I was at the screening, during the very last scene, the guy in front of me kind of squealed and slapped both sides of his head with his hands. I might have done the same thing, just, you know, in my mind. It’s definitely got some twists and turns and surprises in store for you. Just bring a friend so you’ll have someone to discuss it with. I’ve found that friends who haven’t seen it are not willing to let me spoil it for them. This, despite how much I need to talk about what happened. Luckily Rogue One: A Star Wars story is in theaters this weekend, so they can all catch up and we can soon discuss it at length.

From Lucasfilm comes the first of the Star Wars standalone films, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, an all-new epic adventure. In a time of conflict, a group of unlikely heroes band together on a mission to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Empire’s ultimate weapon of destruction. This key event in the Star Wars timeline brings together ordinary people who choose to do extraordinary things, and in doing so, become part of something greater than themselves.