Huge News from Star Wars today! I can hardly contain my enthusiasm so let’s get right to it!
First, we have the name of the first Star Wars standalone film coming out on December 16th, 2016. The movie will be called Rogue One and will star Felicity Jones. No plot details have been revealed but the movie is being written by Christ Weitz and directed by Gareth Edwards. Will we be seeing the Bounty Hunter Heist film that we alluded at a while back? Will Felicity Jones be playing Sabine Wren from Rebels? The title hints at a Rogue Squadron film, but only time will tell.
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. Knoll will serve as Executive Producer along with Kathleen Kennedy and Tony To (Band of Brothers, The Pacific) The film starts shooting this summer in London and is the first Star Wars movie to place outside the “core saga”.
Next, we have found out that Rian Johnson will write and direct Episode VIII. His name had been swirling around as one of the directors, and today StarWars.com has dubbed it true. The movie will be released on May 26th, 2017. While I thought that Looper was an amazing film, I’m not as big a fan of Brothers Bloom and Brick. Given that J. J. Abrams is sure to lay the groundwork in Episode VII and will no doubt be a big part of this next trilogy, I’m confident that whatever Johnson comes up with, we’re in for a good time.
What do you think of this news? Are you happy with Felicity Jones? What do you think the plot will be? How is Rian Johnson as a director? Sound off in the comments and Stay Tooned for more Star Wars news here at DFAT!
