5 Reasons Why Rogue One Will Be Awesome

When Disney announced they were buying the Star Wars franchise, we all knew that meant more Star Wars which is of course awesome but that also meant Disney expanding the universe with spin off films. Whether this is a good decision or not remains to be seen.

However, I thought it’d be fun to try and craft a list of must haves for Rogue One to make it truly awesome for the fans. So to quote a great man, well, being, ‘Do or do not, there is no try’.

 

1. Vader

This is pretty much guaranteed, right? In fact, I remember one of the first announcements by Disney on Star Wars was that they weren’t going to let the dark lord rest as a force ghost for too long. Being the iconic villain of the franchise that Vader is, he was always going to be used again in some way.

As amazing as it would be to see the big man back on the big screen, it needs to be done well and organically.

Considering the events in which this film are taking place, we could get some amazing scenes of Vader tracking down rebels and imposing his will on them. Imagine it: rebels plotting away in one of their hideouts when suddenly the room begins to shake and they are pinned against the wall. Vader slowly walks in, because Vader never has to move fast, and begins to question his captives.

While the plot looks to be mainly focusing on our lead character of Jyn Erso, it could involve some great scenes of tension of Vader interrogating Jyn and testing her dedication to the Empire. At the end of the day whatever we get of Vader is going to be a nostalgic sight, but let’s hope the nostalgia is rewarded with some great new memories.

 

2. The Story

I’ve already touched on this in my previous paragraph but this really is the way to make any film awesome. Not much is known about the plot for Rogue One as they look to be following the same secretive marketing campaign of Force Awakens. What we can gather from the trailers is that Jyn has been picked up by the rebels for being well, rebellious, and is being trained to be their rogue in the Empire.

This is a great opportunity to show us something a bit different in the Star Wars franchise. With the main idea being the rebels trying to get the plans for the Death Star we could have a Star Wars heist movie, and doesn’t that just sound amazing?

With the recent rumours of test screenings not going down well with people and reshoots taking place, I’d imagine it’s down to one of two reasons. Either the film is not very good, pause for shouts of denial, or down to audiences not seeing this type of Star Wars film before. Let’s face it, to some fans if there are no lightsabers or Jedis, they may check out early from this one.

However, this is where these sort of films have to go. With the controversial argument that Force Awakens was pretty much a New Hope reboot, it’s time for them to show us something bold and different.

 

3. Less Skywalker focus

This is a tough one. The Skywalker family have been the cornerstone of the Star Wars franchise. However, it would be nice to delve into new possibilities in these galaxies. To have everything constantly connect to the Skywalkers reduces the element of surprise and makes the universe seem really small.

The Force Awakens managed to do this pretty well, even resisting showing Luke until the very last frame of the film. We already have some new favourite characters with Finn and Rey, let’s hope they can give us some more iconic characters to love.

They could also build up the element of tragedy with this film considering we know that this is going to end minutes before A New Hope starts. This could be prequel storytelling done right to erase just a little of the damage those lesser Star Wars films managed to do.

 

4. The Badass Female Lead

After having six films of predominantly male leads, it looks like Star Wars is really trying to break its own barriers with not only a black stormtrooper, but also by pushing the female heroines.

Building on the success of The Force Awakens, Rogue One has wisely chosen another female lead in Felicity Jones. While the experience may not be as novel as the one we had with Rey, it’s still great to see Star Wars surpassing our expectations.

While we don’t know too much about our new lead, I think it’s safe to assume that she’s going to play a massive role in getting the Death Star plans back to the rebels. Or maybe there could be another twist in store for us? Maybe she is a double agent working for the Empire? Whatever happens, if she becomes a hit with audiences as much as Rey did, they will have done a great job.

 

5. Nostalgia

Something that will either help or hinder the movie. Our nostalgia for the Star Wars of old has already been satisfied with The Force Awakens providing heavy servings of it. While I think we can all agree we are eager to see them replicate the same kind of settings and style of a pre-New Hope world, this must not overshadow the focus of the story they are trying to tell.

However, let’s dream up some sequences we’d love to see again. With the rumour that a young Han Solo could be in the movie we could be treated to some more spectacular sequences in the Millennium Falcon. Images of Darth Vader tracking down Rebels with his army of Stormtroopers that hopefully is done a lot better than the slaughtering of younglings in the prequels. We’ve even seen from the trailer what looks to be a stunning battle sequence involving the AT-AT walkers storming a beach.

The possibilities are endless in appeasing the fans with a mixture of old and new imagery. Whatever happens, I for one am eager to see what they have cooked up in a Star Wars world without the reliance of Jedis and the necessity to show us something new but familiar.