Rogue One (SPOILERS)

[Diddly]

Some info has dropped on the first Spinoff: Release Date is December 16, 2016; Gareth Edwards to direct

EDIT: Whoops, checked everywhere EXCEPT the forum where the info was already posted.

[Phrubruh]

Here is how the spin off writer would change Disneyland's Jedi Academy.

http://www.slashfilm.com/gary-whitta-star-wars-jedi-academy/#more-234786

[Jeff]

Some info has dropped on the first Spinoff: Release Date is December 16, 2016; Gareth Edwards to direct

EDIT: Whoops, checked everywhere EXCEPT the forum where the info was already posted.

No worries, we'll use your post to kick off the official "Star Wars Spin-Off #1" Thread!  (We'll get around to giving it a better title once we actually know what the movie will be about - Boba, Yoda, Han, etc )

[Dave]

Just saw this on CNN about the standalone movie.

Talk of Aaron Paul being a possible male lead, bitch.  And Felicity Jones just went in for readings.

[Jeff]

Stand Alone #1 Update from LFL

"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. Rogue One will be directed by Gareth Edwards (Monsters, Godzilla) and written by Oscar nominee Chris Weitz (Cinderella, About a Boy, Antz). The first actress cast is Felicity Jones, who garnered an Academy Award nomination and critical acclaim for her performance in The Theory of Everything. 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. He will executive produce along with Simon Emanuel (The Dark Knight Rises, Fast & Furious 6) and Jason McGatlin (Tintin, War of the Worlds). Kathleen Kennedy and Tony To (Band of Brothers, The Pacific) are on board to produce and John Swartz (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) will co-produce. The film starts shooting this summer in London and is due for release on December 16, 2016."

[Jesse James]

I am intrigued for sure...  It really implies a Rebel Pilot storyline I'm guessing?  And a female as the lead is interesting too.  I'm all ears, and hope it nets me more Rebel Pilot figures...  if for no other reason than it'll annoy a certain segment of collectors to boot. 

But yeah, the title sure makes one think X-Wing Pilot...  Will spinoffs have a series all their own, like how Iron Man is his own series?  I'm wondering if they'll go that route or one-and-done type deals.

But yeah, dealing with common soldiers/pilots, I'd love stuff like that.  Dream come true if that's how they go.

[Jeff]

Will spinoffs have a series all their own, like how Iron Man is his own series?  I'm wondering if they'll go that route or one-and-done type deals.

The original plan I thought I read was to just do random, one-off movies.  But, like everything else, if they stumble onto something that makes a bajilion dollars, I could see them making a "Rogue One 2".

You bring up an interesting point about potential for figures...  Whatever they make, it'll be a pretty short run.  There's a really small window for any retail line if the Episode 8 stuff will be hitting in March/April 2017. 

I think I saw Jayson joking on Twitter about how Hasbro is taking/planning for all these movies...  assuming they need a buffer in-between to clear out retail to make room for the next line, could we see something like:

Ep7 toy line = September 2015 - July 2016
Rogue One toy line = September 2016 - February 2017
Ep8 toy line = April 2017 - whenever the next stand-alone comes along

And people still think there will be a lot of room at retail for large PT/OT figure lines and Rebels and whatever else...?  How this is all going to work is still the most curious part for me, aside from the scales and the prices.

[Jesse James]

Exactly...

I think fans are in for MAJOR bitch-fests online because this is gonna be boom boom boom type of distribution, nothing like we've ever experienced with Star Wars as a toy line, ever really.

Star Wars is maybe unique too, in that the collecting world DEMANDS the most obscure of figures...  How slighted are they going to feel?  It's impossible for Hasbro to have some kind of dedicated line of obscurity for collectors, but collectors will assume "they can make anything, and just don't to piss us off and ruin the line!", as collectors tend to be.  I don't think super hero lines have had the level of obscurity to them that Star Wars does, and they're really the only lines to compare to since there seems to be new hero flicks out every year.

At this point I just don't see the time for Hasbro to delve into these deep character pools till the next blitz is on...  Getting main characters done nicely may be a stretch even, much less these obscure droids, aliens, and troopers that we all will want.  I don't see how it's possible really unless they don't distinguish lines and Star Wars in the toy aisle is kind of generic?  But the packaging is the advertising, so I don't see that happening either.

I agree completely, how they shake this stuff out is far more interesting to me than anything.  Uncharted waters, again.  I know what I want, but I'm not really banking on much of it in terms of scale or quality.     I'm just sort of rolling with the punches though. 

It doesn't take a crystal ball to predict a segment of the buying public will be vocally upset with whatever winds up happening though.   

[Darby]

I definitely think the model we're all accustomed to - deep cuts on characters spread out over years between movies - is probably over. Depending on how comprehensive the initial roll out for each of these films is, that could end up being a bummer, especially if there are vast layers of background coolness that go ignored because there's another movie six months later. On the other hand, you have another midnight madness type drop every six months. We'll see come this fall how varied the volume is with Hasbro. The likelihood we get many figures for TFA even beyond September 2016 has to be somewhat suspect given the release schedule going forward. I have a feeling we'll something like 50+ figures for TFA on or around launch time. Disney will look to mine this for all it's worth.

I do expect LOTS of complaining. I mean, that's all there is now, and all the really good stuff to complain about is years behind us. I don't know even know what we want or don't want with these movies yet, so I won't speculate on what the concerns could be, but to Jesse's point SW collectors expect a degree of obscurity that is simply unrivaled in any other collecting segment. This kind of endless blitzing of merchandise, focused certainly on the heavy hitters of each respective movie, is going to reduce opportunities for Hasbro or any producer of SW related merchandise to really dig too deep. I have no doubt Hasbro will continue to cull from previous films to fill in spots here and there - even today we're getting new CW characters - but you're talking about very, very limited opportunities for that when Hasbro will be going - forget every six months, how about every three - from movie, to DVD release, to movie and so on from now until the brand somehow becomes unprofitable.

[Rob]

Can we start complaining now or do we have to wait for the facts to be presented?? 

[Muftak]

When have the complainers let the facts stand in their way?

Interesting title, but so little in the way of details...all I can say is Luke was "rogue leader" so this could refer to anyone or anything at this point. It looks like an x-wing movie, but who knows? Maybe it will be the story of the inspiration for the Rogue Squadron name and have nothing to do with fightercraft at all.

The interesting toyline pointhere is how big a line will this movie get? There's precedent for anywhere from 12 to 50 figures for launch, and the more I think about it the more I feel we will get big dumps of 5 POA figures to open these movies and pretty much nothing after that. Again, depends what kind of movie this is. If it isn't a "cast of thousands" type spectacle like we are used to with Star Wars, then maybe a small line will make more sense than a big one would.

[Jesse James]

It's been fun reading people's impressions of the concept art Iger showed...  "There's no X-Wings!  It's clearly not X-Wing Rogues and something different!"

Or, ya know, they fight outside their ships and stuff too, like they did in comics, novels, and games.   

Which it very well could be anything else too, but just sayin' the name certainly makes one assume it'll be the elite pilots doing something.  2 hours of flight would be kind of a weird film though.

[Nicklab]

It's interesting that they're going to be returning to a May film release schedule.  When Disney first announced that they would be releasing THE FORCE AWAKENS in December, I got the sense that it was a play by Disney to own two distinct movie release periods.  Star Wars would give Disney ownership of the December box office, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe would take the leading role in owning that big May movie.

But I think that the way the movie industry is so intertwined with it's associated merchandising partners, Disney has come to realize that a December release doesn't work as well for a major merchandising oriented film.

[P-Siddy]

I was thinking X-Wing, too, but then wouldn't it be Rogue Leader?  So maybe it's different.  I heard of the Sabine rumors.  Guess I'll wait and see.

[Nicklab]

This bit of news is pretty significant:  John Williams Will Not Score Star Wars: Rogue One.

Composer Alexandre Desplat has been tapped to score ROGUE ONE.  Here's the text:

Few things are as synonymous with Star Wars as the music of John Williams. It’s hard to even think about the franchise, original trilogy or prequels, without the composer’s rousing tunes coming to mind. When the first spinoff movie drops on December 16, 2016, however, you may be in for a shock, as John Williams will not score Star Wars: Rogue One.

 Williams’ music has a massive impact on the films he’s involved with. Just think what Star Wars, the Indiana Jones movies, and Jurassic Park would be without his work. But as revealed on an episode of French radio program, Radio Classique’s Culture Club, Alexandre Desplat will handle the score for director Gareth Edwards’ (Godzilla) upcoming turn around that far, far away galaxy.

 This makes Rogue One the first Star Wars movie to arrive in theaters without Williams, and though it’s shocking to think of at first, it isn’t a huge surprise. There has been talk for a while that the 83-year-old composer will continue to score the Episode movies, like The Force Awakens, but leave the standalone movies to franchise newcomers. If nothing else, this will be one way to truly establish these films as their own unique entity, as something different within the larger Star Wars framework.

 For his part, Desplat is slouch at all, and you can do a whole lot worse on this front. He’s very, very talented in his own right, and has worked on tons of high profile films, including both parts of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Zero Dark Thirty, and Unbroken, among many others. Just recently, he won an Academy Award for his work on Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, in a category where he actually competed against himself. His score for the Benedict Cumberbatch-starring The Imitation Game was also nominated. The guy had a solid year.

 He’s obviously no stranger to big, epic movies, and Rogue One marks the second collaboration between Desplat and Edwards, who worked together on Godzilla last year. It will be interesting to see what he brings to Star Wars, and if he puts his own unique stamp on the film or tries to pay homage to Williams.

 For as much talk as there’s been, we don’t know a ton about Rogue One. Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything) is reportedly the female star, the story comes from an idea by longtime Industrial Light & Magic visual effects supervisor John Knoll, and Chris Weitz is handling the latest incarnation of the script after Gary Whitta left. Everything else is unsubstantiated rumor and hearsay at this point.

 The title, Rogue One, presumably refers to Rogue Leader, the commander of Rogue Squadron, the most elite flying force in all of the Rebel Alliance. This moniker has, at various times, been bestowed on Wedge Antilles, Tycho Celchu, and Luke Skywalker, a name you probably recognize. We’ve also heard that this first standalone film involves bounty hunters, Boba Fett, and a heist, possibly of the plans for the first Death Star. At this stage, we have no idea how all of these elements, if they are indeed true, come together in the story, but we’re damn excited to find out.