I was skeptical of this whole “Star Wars Story” thing until I saw the trailer. Then it hit me:
The OT is a core part of my life. Saying I love it is an insulting understatement.
I liked the PT when I saw it, though the bulk of it hasn’t aged well.
I loved TFA for what it was, though it was flawed.
But Rogue One looks poised to deliver what I’ve been wanting for 33 years, and didn’t even realize it. I don’t want something 30 years before Star Wars. I don’t want something 30 years after Star Wars. I want more Star Wars. And to me, the Star Wars is the OT. Seeing Star Destroyers, AT-AT’s, and Stormtroopers that weren’t interesting visual tweaks on Star Destroyers, AT-AT’s, and Stormtroopers, but ACTUAL Star Destroyers, AT-AT’s, and Stormtroopers was thrilling in a way I didn’t know was missing. I’m psyched beyond reason, just from one teaser.
Um, I thought that prior to capturing the ship, Princess Leia was a big deal in the rebel part, didn’t Vader suspect her of being one, and she was a senator/representative from her planet (seems like a high position, and being a rebel at that position equals that may be an important person).
I think although the movie is about the crew that gained the plans to destroy the Death Star, most of the action can occur before they get the plans. It could set up how life was in the years after Revenge of the Sith and just before ANH. It could span years if they get involved into some of the political attacks and battles in the years between, culminating with the crew assembling and getting the plans of this new shiny thing they discovered (Death Star).
So although the last part of the movie connects immediately or almost to the start of ANH, the rest of the movie doesn’t have to occur in that time, it can span longer.
Rebels has introduced new canon around this issue: Leia’s adoptive father, Bail Organa, is one of the founding members of the Rebellion, and Leia is involved in it up to her eyeballs. An episode this season had her in command of a mission to smuggle some cruisers to the Rebellion, without blowing her cover as a loyal member of the Imperial Senate.
I’m hoping he’s more like the shark in Jaws or the T-rex in Jurassic Park. He’s not constantly on the screen, and the main characters don’t interacting with him directly that much, but he’s always right behind them. Ramp up the tension that he could attack at any moment.
A somewhat tougher thing to get around will be the character of Tarkin, who is an immensely important person - in Star Wars he appears to be the Empire’s most senior military officer and in some ways superior to Darth Vader. Peter Cushing is rather dead, and would be 103 years old now anyway, so I’m not sure if they’re going to recast that role or avoid it. Depends how you approach the story. (ETA: Apparently they will use digital trickery to have Cushing’s Tarkin in the movie.)
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I assumed the old-ish guy in the white outfit with the cape in the trailer was Tarkin.
That wasn’t even really in Rebels first. I know many people seem to loathe those movies, but Bail Organa was effectively present at the founding of the Rebellion in Episode 3.
OK, yeah, I missed that, and, yes, there’s that silver-ish stormtrooper that looks like he got crossed with a cylon centurion, but for the most part, it feels like the OT, at least from this small snippet.
Am I alone in thinking it’d be kind of cool if this ends up with the main character succeeding, getting the plans off, and escaping to what seems like it’s a place where she’ll be able to wait off the heat–except the last scene reveals she’s doing the debrief on Alderaan?
Yeah, when Disney bought Lucas out, they threw out everything except the six movies, and the Clone Wars cartoon. Rebels is basically Disney’s sequel to Clone Wars, and like all of the Disney Star Wars stuff, is part of the new canon.