Rogue One: What’s It All About?

Last month, the revelation of the title of the first “standalone” Star Wars film, Rogue One, threw franchise fans into a tizzy, particularly those who adored the Rogue Squadron novels by Michael A. Stackpole. Now, thanks to news from the Star Wars Celebration this weekend, we know Rogue One isn’t going to be the movie we thought it would be, not exactly. In the heads of most Star Wars fans, “Rogue” means Rogue Squadron, but the new plot description might make you think not of Wedge Antilles, but of Kyle Katarn from Dark Forces.
At the Rogue One panel, it was confirmed the film will focus on “resistance fighters” plotting to steal the Death Star plans. Felicity Jones is set to lead this band of rebels, and all involved, from director Gareth Edwards to LucasFilm head Kathleen Kennedy, have asserted the film will have a “troops on the ground” military feel, rather than the flying spaceship variety. And it’s all very familiar.

All right. The Death Star plans: how’d they get stolen again? We thought Princess Leia stole them, right? Or wait, didn’t “many Bothans die” to deliver the plans? Nope and nope. The Bothans died for the intel about the second Death Star (and we saw them die in comic series Shadows of the Empire); this is all about the plans for the first Death Star. In A New Hope, Vader says that some transmissions were “beamed” to Leia’s ship by “Rebel spies.” Presumably, Rogue One will end with Felicity Jones pressing a button that sends the Death Star plans to Leia.
We’ve also seen the Death Star plans in the hands of Count Dooku in Attack of the Clones (delivered, if you’ll recall, by a giant flying bug). We also see the Death Star under construction at the end of Revenge of the Sith, but there’s some debate as to when that scene takes place. The new in-canon novel Tarkin also provides background on the Death Star’s production, some of which contradicts old-school expanded universe novels. In Jedi Search, we learned about a place called the Maw Installation, where a prototype for the Death Star was built, positioned in-between several black holes, like that planet in Interstellar. The Maw Installation is likely not featured in Rogue One. But what about those pesky plans?

In the 1995 Doom-style video game Dark Forces, the player walks around shooting storm troopers and space criminals, and the very first level is all about you (as Kyle Katarn) stealing the Death Star plans! Kyle is assisted throughout by his friend Jan Ors. Maybe Felicity Jones is playing a version of Jan, or maybe she’s the focus instead of Kyle Katarn? In the greater “story” of Dark Forces, Kyle ends up becoming a Jedi Knight in a roundabout path that’s not markedly different from the story of Rogue Squadron’s Corran Horn.
Dark Forces is a notable entry in the Star Wars pantheon for a lot of reasons, but perhaps most interesting is that it’s a first-person shooter. Lots of laser blasts. If Rogue One is going to have a military feel, there’s a chance it’s taking a lot of its inspiration from Dark Forces, and not, as assumed, the Rogue Squadron books. If that means these characters will get to fight the game’s super-scary Dark Troopers, that could be cool, too.
UPDATE: You can now watch the teaser trailer for yourself!

What do you think Rogue One will really be about?