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‘Star Wars: Rogue One’ Receives Its First Review, And It’s Positive

By Gregory Wakeman
Published on: 10:52 PST, Feb 11, 2016

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is now less than a year away. Anticipation ahead of the eighth installment to the Star Wars universe is rather fervent, which is why news of its first review should have fans enthralled.

Unfortunately though, Rogue One’s first review comes from someone who is rather close to the production, as Disney CEO Bob Iger is the one who has provided it. According to Entertainment Weekly, Bob Iger insisted, while speaking to investors, that Rogue One looks great, while he also provided a vague update on the young Han Solo film.

“Filming of Rogue One is virtually completed and we absolutely love what we’ve seen so far,”Bob Iger explained during the conference call. “This is the first of a set of planned stan-alone stories and we’re already in preproduction on our next one, for release in May of 2018.”

The standalone film that Bob Iger mentioned will revolve around a “young Han Solo.” Directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who previously oversaw 21 Jump Street and The Lego Movie, the Han Solo film has so far spent several months trying to find the perfect actor to replace Harrison Ford in the role.

So far a dozen actors, including Ansel Elgort and Miles Teller, have been linked to the leading role in the blockbuster, which, as Bob Iger explained, will be released in May 2018.

Before then, though, there are two other Star Wars films to get excited about. Star Wars: Episode 8, which will be the sequel to The Force Awakens, will be directed by Jurassic World and Safety Not Guaranteed‘s Colin Trevorrow. However, Star Wars fans were dealt a huge blow when it was announced that Star Wars 8 would be delayed by over six months, and would instead be released in December 2017.

Speaking about Star Wars: Episodes 8 and 9, Bob Iger told the same conference call, “There is no better way to propel this franchise into the future than producing quality products. Filming of Star Wars: Episode VIII, the next chapter of the legendary saga, has just commenced and it will be in theaters December 2017. And production of Episode IX, a 2019 release, has also begun.”

There was no news of delay to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which is being overseen by Godzilla‘s Gareth Edwards, and is close to completion after several months of production.

Starring Academy Award-nominated actress Felicity Jones, who was recognized for her role in The Theory Of Everything, and also Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Jiang Yen, Forest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, and Jonathan Aris, Rogue One is set in between Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

It revolves around a group of Rebel fighters that decide to carry out a mission to steal the Galactic Empire’s plans to build the Death Star, the deadly weapon which appears in A New Hope.

It’s arguably the most anticipated film of the year, although Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice and Captain America: Civil War fans might disagree, and will be the first Star Wars film to be released since the huge success of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens ultimately grossed over $2 billion at the box office, and is currently the third-highest-grossing film of all time, behind James Cameron’s Avatar and Titanic. It also broke several records on the way to this mammoth haul, breaking the domestic box office record by collecting over $900 million. In the same investors call, Bob Iger explained that Star Wars: The Force Awakens also made over $3 billion in consumer products too.

[Image via Disney]

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