3) A Break From The Mythology
While Darth Vader may make a couple of brief appearances in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the movie gives us a break from the classic Skywalker mythology and there’s not so much as a single Jedi in sight. Sure, they’re referenced and the Force is mentioned, but it was actually something of a relief not to have any massive Easter Eggs dropped here which either set up future instalments in the current trilogy or further flesh out the iconic family’s history, which we already know an awful lot about.
Some fans would have liked to see Supreme Leader Snoke or a young Luke Skywalker show up, but aside from a glimpse of Princess Leia, the movie is relatively free of that sort of world-building. This bodes well for future spinoffs and hopefully ensures that they’ll be true standalone films. Let the main saga entries take care of all the heavy lifting – these Anthology outings should be entirely their own thing.