The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker proved to be hugely divisive for a number of wildly different reasons, while not everyone was instantly sold on the merits of Solo as evidenced by the prequel bombing at the box office, so the release of Rogue One five years ago was the last time critics, audiences, and fans were all in unanimous agreement over a Star Wars movie.
An 84% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, an 86% user score, over a billion dollars globally and a reputation as the best movie set in a galaxy far, far away of the entire Disney era is all entirely deserved and fully justified. In fact, people love Rogue One so much that it tends to trend every few months for no other reason than people want to remind their social media followers that it rules, as you can see from the reactions below.
Lucasfilm must surely be regretting their decision to wipe out the entire principal cast at the end of the third act to eliminate the possibility of sequels, but Diego Luna’s pilot will be getting his own prequel spinoff to the prequel spinoff next year when Star Wars: Andor comes to Disney Plus, and Felicity Jones isn’t against the idea of returning as Jyn Erso.
Rogue One‘s reputation is all the more impressive when you remember that a troubled production saw Tony Gilroy take over from director Gareth Edwards for extensive and expensive reshoots, and it still turned out a whole lot better than the projects overseen from start to finish by J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson. Even if Solo didn’t experience the same results when Ron Howard stepped in for Phil Lord and Christopher Miller with just three weeks of principal photography left to go, Rogue One is a contemporary classic.