Is ‘Star Wars: Rogue One’ A Standalone Film? Not Really
A lot has been made about the upcoming Star Wars films that supposedly fall outside of the normal episodic adventures. In December, fans will pack movie lines for the first one, Star Wars: Rogue One. Standalone is something that Lucasfilm has been using to describe the movies labeled “A Star Wars Story.” However, calling Rogue One “standalone” could be considered stretching the truth.
Rouge One is a direct prequel.
Star Wars: Rogue One is set to take place directly before the events of A New Hope. The Star Wars universe rarely gives an indication of the time that has elapsed between one installment to the other. For instance, The Empire Strikes Back begins with the Rebels on the frozen world of Hoth.
The last time we had seen them they had destroyed the first Death Star and Darth Vader had narrowly escaped getting blown to bits by Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon in A New Hope. Fans are to assume some years have passed between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. According to IMDb, the time between the events are roughly four years. Likewise, just about a year passes between Empire and Return of the Jedi.
Rogue One follows a Rebel strike team that looks to steal plans of the Death Star. From the trailer, we can see the Empire putting the final touches on the Death Star that would make the battle station fully operational. Most likely, this puts Rogue One closer in time to any other movie in the series.
The events of Rogue One are directly referred to in A New Hope.
When the term “standalone” is attached to a movie, most of the time anthology comes to mind. The idea is that the movie, book, or show can be watched without the need for any explanation prior to the events or after the events occur. Tales from the Crypt or Twilight Zone are shows that come to mind. Even the Alien and Predator movies could fit into this context.
In Predator, a special forces team is sent into the jungle to investigate an alien lifeform. In Alien, Nostromo lands on a planet, and the crew picks up a passenger that takes them out one by one. These two events supposedly take place in the same universe, but they are independent to one another. They stand alone.
After Han, Luke, and Leia escape their confinement on the Death Star, they make their way to the secret Rebel base on Yavin IV with the plans Leia had stored in R2-D2. In the opening crawl of A New Hope, it references where the plans for the Death Star originated.
“During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire’s ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet.”
The Rebel spies in Rogue One are the ones talked about in the crawl. There has been no indication exactly where Rogue One ends, but there is a good chance that things will not be resolved with the Empire when that time comes.
Darth Vader is in Rogue One.
The idea behind the episodic adventure is that it follows the Skywalker lineage. This is what was supposed to separate the standalone movies from them. Entertainment Weekly confirmed that Darth Vader, evil Anakin Skywalker, will, in fact, make an appearance in Rogue One. James Earl Jones will again voice the Dark Lord of the Sith, so the part is more than just a passing glance.
When Disney purchased Lucasfilm, they assured fans the reason why they were willing to pay $4 billion for the property was because there were plenty of stories to tell in the universe. Naturally, fan expectations can reach heights that few studios could hope to meet, but it seems that Disney is just playing intsafe. To call Star Wars: Rogue One standalone is a stretch at best.
[Image via Lucasfilm]
