Make no mistake, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will be a dark movie, as evidenced by its gritty tone and added emphasis on the "Wars." Fortunately, it looks like shooting the movie wasn't anywhere near a dreary affair. As part of the increased Rogue One marketing push in the weeks leading up to its release, a new featurette has been released that shows what a blast the cast and crew had working on the movie. Check it out!
In the new Rogue One featurette, director Gareth Edwards, as well as stars Felicity Jones and Diego Luna, explained how much they enjoyed working on the new Star Wars movie. While their comments were definitely heart-warming, it was the visuals accompanying their words that sold the overall tone of the first half of the video. Whether it was at the Yavin 4 base set or in the cockpit of an X-Wing, it looked like everyone involved in the highly-anticipated blockbuster had fun throughout. Many of the folks contributing to Rogue One, be it on or off camera, grew up watching the Star Wars movies, so to be a part of this galaxy far, far away was surely like a dream come true. Side note, I especially got a kick seeing that silver droid remote controlled into having a spaz attack.
Another thing this featurette did was clarify to casual moviegoers how Rogue One fits into the overall Star Wars series post-The Force Awakens. While longtime fans understand that this is one of the Anthology spinoffs that are being released between the sequel trilogy entries, I've definitely heard some not extremely invested in the franchise question where this movie rests in the timeline. Shots of the Death Star and Darth Vader provided helpful frames of reference, but sometimes you need to spell out exactly what is happening. Well, the latter half of the video makes it clear: we're traveling back to a time when the underdog Rebels were still fighting the tyrannical Empire.
Taking place shortly before A New Hope, Rogue One will follow a group of Rebel operatives who have been sent to steal the plans for the Death Star. While we know what will happen to the colossal battle station later on, it remains to be see how this team will emerge from the mission, though given what they're up against, casualties are guaranteed. The movie's cast includes Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso, Diego Luna as Cassian Andor, Donnie Yen as Chirrut Îmwe, Mads Mikkelsen as Galen Erso, Jiang Wen as Baze Malbus, Riz Ahmed as Bodhi Rook, Ben Mendelsohn as Orson Krennic, Alan Tudyk as K-2SO and Forest Whitaker as Saw Gerrera.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hits theaters on December 16.
