LUCASFILM, SAN FRANCISCO — Lucasfilm has said it from the beginning: “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” would be a “stand-alone” film. And the story is rather obvious. Rebel spies break into the Death Star to steal the space-station plans in order to help the Alliance destroy it. Given there’s this little movie called “Star Wars: A New Hope,” we know how it ends [*spoiler*: they successfully steal those plans]. But that hasn’t stopped fans from asking about sequels. “Rogue One” director Gareth Edwards recently joked that “Rogue 2” was actually ‘A New Hope’ (the new film ends where the other begins).
And if it’s too vague for some, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has made it unequivocally clear: There will be no sequel to “Rogue One.” But speculation (or hope) continues that audiences could still see a spin-off film with Felicity Jones’ Jynn Erso or some of the other characters in “Rogue One.”
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“This is devastating to everyone [in the cast],” Kennedy joked. “Wait a second! We don’t know yet, it’s a conversation we haven’t had!” Diego Luna cried jokingly.
Kennedy then went serious for a moment. “When we came up with these ideas to do these stand-alone movies, what’s liberating in many ways is the notion that we can come up with these stories inside the ‘Star Wars’ universe that really have a beginning, middle and end. And they stand truly on their own and this [movie] does.”
Asked point blank again whether we might see these characters again, Kennedy said simply, “doubtful,” to what appeared to be knowing laughs from the rest of the cast. “A lot of tears, a lot of tears,” Kennedy teased. “The sequel to ‘Rogue One’ is Episode IV,” said ILM Chief Creative Officer, and ‘Rogue One’ story creator John Knoll, to which Alan Tudyk quipped, “And we can’t be in that.”
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Without having seen the entire movie and just speculating aloud, given the nature of the Rebels’ suicide-squad missions, there could be a very obvious reason why none of these characters will return. But who knows, maybe the Lucasfilm bunch really just want the story to be self-contained.
Press and media were able to see almost 30 minutes of footage from “Rogue One” last night at Skywalker Ranch in San Francisco. The footage consisted of the opening 15 minutes of the movie involving a young Jynn Erso, her father Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) and Imperial commander Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) — some of which you’ve seen in the trailers — a spectacular, casualty-filled battle sequence (reminiscent of “Saving Private Ryan”), a sequence on a prison satellite planet (which looked phenomenal) where Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) makes a questionable ethical decision, and an expanded sizzle reel that was entirely thrilling. How will the rest of the movie turn out? It remains to be seen given all the extensive reshoot news, but “Rogue One” is due in theaters December 16, so we’ll find out soon enough.