Felicity Jones will star in the first stand-alone "Star Wars" movie, "Rogue One," to be directed by Gareth Edwards, Disney announced Thursday.
Walt Disney Co. Chairman and CEO Bob Iger
announced at the annual stockholders meeting that "Star Wars" adventures will continue, and "Rogue One" is just the beginning, with a sequel to this year's Episode VII, "The Force Awakens," being released in May 2017.
"'Rogue One' is the title for the first film in a unique series of big-screen adventures that explores the characters and events beyond the core 'Star Wars' saga,” Disney said. "The idea for the story of 'Rogue One' came from John Knoll, an Academy Award-winning visual effects supervisor and chief creative officer at Industrial Light & Magic."
The movie stars filming in London this summer, and has a Dec. 16, 2016, planned release date.
“Stars Wars” fans immediately began speculating about the movie, which will be written by Chris Weitz, and what time period it will be set in.
Fangirl Kay jumped right in on fangirl.com, “The implications of the title alone are exciting. ... But this could be the Rogue Squadron movie fans of the (Legends) X-Wing book series (or for some of us the N64 video game) have been pining for. Rogue One was typically the call sign of the leader of Rogue Squadron, a position in past stories that has been held by Luke Skywalker, Wedge Antilles, and Jaina Solo.”
Anticipation permeated online posts about “Rogue One”:
Iger also confirmed “Star Wars: Episode VIII” will be written and directed by Rian Johnson. “The film, which continues the saga after the events of ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens,’ is set for release on May 26, 2017 — forty years and a day after the release of ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’ in 1977,” Disney said.
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