An expansion of the Star Wars Universe

As said, the movie can be seen as a prequel of A New Hope, placed between the 6th and the 3rd episodes of the Star Wars saga. But Rogue One is much more than just that. In a way, it is what Prometheus was intended to be for the Alien Universe – shedding some light on the unknown events, barely mentioned in any of the movies.

Thus, Rogue One will expand the story encompassed in the opening of the opening crawl for A New Hope – “It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. 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.” (via Star Wars Wikia)

Essentially, this will be the first Star Wars flick which won’t be centered on the Skywalkers, with many believing that there won’t be any Force sensitive characters in the movie (though we doubt it). It is rumored that the main cast (well, not all of them, just those in the pic above) won’t be members of the Alliance at all, but rather a group of bounty-hunters hired to steal the Death Star plans.

Which is an interesting approach, since this will also make Rogue One the first Star Wars story to be a heist movie (hopefully, not in the goofy-early-James-Bond-y veins of Ant-Man). Will Gareth Edwards pull it through?