Rogue One: A Star Wars Story [First Look]

by TIMMAY

 

Last winter, nerds everywhere celebrated as Star Wars returned in a major way with “The Force Awakens.”It shattered movie records, sold out merchandise as fast as they could put it on the shelves and most importantly, was the launching point of a new trilogy.

The sequel to that movie is currently being filmed, and will be released in December 2017. Just like the prequel trilogy (that some of us want to forget) and the original 70s era trilogy, the upcoming trilogy will be about the Skywalker bloodline. Whether that lineage follows Kylo Ren or Rey – we’ll have to wait and see. Rogue One however, will be the first Star Wars movie that will not focus on the Skywalkers or the Jedi, and that is what makes this movie so intriguing. It is the first of a set of anthology films, that will either look into the past (the origins of Han Solo and Boba Fett) or shed light on current characters (according to the Star Wars CEO).

 

During the very first Star Wars movie, did the question “how the hell did the Rebels get the top secret blueprints of the Death Star?” ever cross your mind? Of course it did. It definitely was something I thought about as I got older. Rogue One will see the rebels steal these blue prints and continue the new Star Wars trend of a female lead character.

Felicity Jones, who recently played a small role in Amazing Spiderman 2, will star as Jyn, a rebel that leads a small army to steal the Death Star plans. Gareth Edwards, who directed 2014’s Godzilla, has a cast that features Forest Whitaker (just the fourth black man to win an Oscar in a leading role), Mads Mikkelsen, the legendary martial artist Donnie Yen and others.

 

This movie is set a right before “A New Hope”, which means the nostalgia of the classic designs of characters and vehicles that made us love Star Wars will be prominent through out the film.

Another ace this movie has up its sleeve, which I am sure they will save for future marketing purposes, is that Darth Vader is alive and well.

 

Rogue One may be the first “stand-alone” Star Wars movie, but there are rumors that it may have very strong ties to The Force Awakens. The opening sequence featured Max Von Sydow’s character Lor San Tekka, and it’s implied to us that he has been around a very long time. When he spoke to Kylo Ren, he talked about knowing him as a child. Before Star Wars 7 released, we were told that Lor San Tekka is an older version of a character that we already know. The rumored character was Boba Fett.

Another rumor, is that he’s the older version of Mads Mikkelsen’s character, Galen. Galen is the scientist that helped create the Death Star, but grew a conscience afterward. It goes on to say that Jyn is Galen’s  daughter, who is a bounty hunter.  For all we know, both of these rumors for Lor San Tekka may be true. If so, this makes the Boba Fett movie much more interesting, and proves that these “standalone movies” may be more connected than we thought.

After watching the Force Awakens, just like everyone else, I settled on Luke being Rey’s father and surmised that her mother must have been a rebel. What if Jyn is Rey’s mother? We know that a year after “The Return of the Jedi”, there was the battle on Jakku. Luke and the rebels fought the remains of the Empire, and afterwards he began to train Jedi. If he conceived a child, after the fight on Jakku would be the only possible time. If Jyn is truly the mother of Rey, that would make Lor San Tekka Rey’s grandfather, and would explain why he chose Jakku as his refuge. He was watching over Rey, like Ben Kenobi did over Luke in the original Star Wars.

So many questions, and hopefully the upcoming trailers and the finished film answers most of them.

 

Comments