Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
US release date: December 16th, 2016
UK release date: December 15th, 2016
What is it? The first of the new ‘Anthology’ films for the rebooted Star Wars cinematic universe, Rogue One chronicles the events mentioned in the opening crawl of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. The Rebellion enlists the help of the daughter of the Death Star architect, and she must lead a team to steal the plans before the Empire can engage its weapon of mass destruction.
Who made it? Rogue One is directed by Gareth Edwards (Godzilla), from a script written by Chris Weitz (Cinderella), Tony Gilroy (The Great Wall), John Knoll, and Gary Whitta (After Earth).
Who’s in it? Felicity Jones, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, Ben Mendelsohn, Diego Luna, Forest Whitaker, Riz Ahmed, Jimmy Smits, Donnie Yen, Genevieve O’Reilly, Wen Jiang.
What do we think? Being a Star Wars film, this is essentially guaranteed to be a box office success. Trailers would suggest that the film provides plenty of spectacle, and great action sequences, while keeping with the overall themes of the Star Wars universe – of light battling dark against a backdrop of family drama. Most of the creators here are entirely new to the Star Wars universe, however, so it will be interesting to see what they bring to the table.