Why Rogue One is 2016’s most impor­tant blockbuster

“We have hope. Rebel­lions are built on hope,” declares Jyn Erso in the rap­tur­ous final trail­er for Rogue One: A Star Wars Sto­ry. An apt and obser­va­tion­al quote not just for the gag­gle of rag­tag anti-heroes prepar­ing to over­throw a galac­tic dic­ta­tor­ship, but for the twinned stu­dios tasked with bring­ing their voy­age to the­atres. Since The Walt Dis­ney Com­pa­ny acquired Lucas­film back in 2012, the Star Wars fran­chise has gone from strength to strength. Now, how­ev­er, they face their first true test.

A lit­tle under 12 months ago, JJ Abrams’ much-laud­ed Star Wars: The Force Awak­ens opened in cin­e­mas every­where, becom­ing the third high­est gross­ing film of all time with­in the space of a month. Already among the larg­er and most lucra­tive movie brands, Star Wars has become even more so under the soft, plush hands of the House of Mouse. But The Force Awak­ens was a safe bet. It con­tin­ued the episod­ic for­mat devel­oped by Lucas­film and paid close homage to George Lucas’ orig­i­nal char­ac­ters and envi­ron­ments. Rogue One on the oth­er hand is an entire­ly dif­fer­ent ani­mal. The stand­alone nar­ra­tive will intro­duce a new cast of char­ac­ters (For­est Whitaker’s Saw Ger­rera is trans­ferred from The Clone Wars ani­mat­ed series), and is sta­tioned some­where between Dis­ney XD’s Star Wars Rebels and Lucas’ Episode IV: A New Hope.

It will also be the first Jedi-free Star Wars sto­ry and promis­es to offer some­thing dark­er – a far cry from pri­ma­ry-coloured nos­tal­gia and the whirring charm of BB‑8. For the first time in four years of own­er­ship, Dis­ney are rolling the dice with their inter­galac­tic behe­moth, build­ing their own cam­paign entire­ly upon hope.

The pro­duc­tion process has been wide­ly pub­li­cised and scru­ti­nised. Many out­lets report­ed on expen­sive and exten­sive reshoots through­out the sum­mer, appar­ent­ly owing to a lack of faith in direc­tor Gareth Edwards’ first cut from the studio’s top brass. Then it was con­firmed that screen­writer and direc­tor Tony Gilroy had joined the pro­duc­tion, over­see­ing some five weeks of addi­tion­al footage and assist­ing co-writer Chris Weitz with the screen­play. Rumour has it that Disney’s exec­u­tives were not con­fi­dent that Edwards could deliv­er a defin­i­tive ver­sion of the film with­out aid from a men­tor, and as Gilroy lent his hand to 2014’s Godzil­la, he was the obvi­ous man for the job.

There’s also the small mat­ter of inflat­ed expec­ta­tion. Rogue One is no doubt a prov­ing ground for Dis­ney, a the­mat­ic lit­mus test to see whether sto­ries out­side of the tra­di­tion­al Saga frame­work have valid­i­ty and mass mar­ket appeal. Two fur­ther ​‘anthol­o­gy’ fea­tures have been con­firmed in the wake of Edwards’ epic; the as-yet unti­tled Han Solo spin-off, for which both Alden Ehren­re­ich and Don­ald Glover have been cast, and a Boba Fett ori­gins tale. Yet the future of such projects could be swift­ly vapor­ised should Rogue One stum­ble at the final hurdle.

It seems that the pres­sure is now real­ly on, but press your nose up to the glass a lit­tle more and a dif­fer­ent pic­ture emerges. Edits become enhance­ments; high expec­ta­tions become oppor­tu­ni­ties. In a year laden with gener­ic, lazy block­busters, Rogue One has the feel­ing of some­thing not only fresh and excit­ing but also pur­pose­ful. Some­thing impor­tant. Edwards and his band of mul­ti­lin­gual, multi­na­tion­al recruits have the chance to be gen­uine­ly orig­i­nal with­in an estab­lished, famil­iar framework.

Dis­ney CEO Bob Iger has pre­vi­ous­ly stat­ed that the stu­dio does not expect Edwards’ entry to match Abrams’, but any­one pre­pared to take that as crit­i­cism is mis­guid­ed. It is clear that despite pro­duc­tion hic­cups and neg­a­tive press, they see poten­tial in this prod­uct and increased longevi­ty for the fran­chise. Should their cal­cu­lat­ed gam­ble pay off, audi­ences can expect future trips to a galaxy far, far away to be con­sid­er­ably more expan­sive and progressive.