Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
FAR, FAR AWAY — Disney recently held its annual shareholder meeting where chairman and chief executive Bob Iger announced plans for the first-ever standalone Star Wars movie.
Set to star Academy Award nominee Felicity Jones, “Rogue One” will begin filming in London later this year and is set to be released Dec. 16, 2016.
Without any further details on the story itself, people have already begun speculating what the title might mean. Obviously, Wedge Antilles of the original Star Wars trilogy was referred to as Rogue One, and Star Wars books and video games have extended the title to whoever leads the Rogue Squadron at any given time. Maybe the latest film will be the “Top Gun” of Star Wars.
“Rogue One’s” original concept is being credited to industrial light and magic veteran John Knoll, who will also share the title as executive producer.
Also, for those more interested in the current trilogy’s progress, Disney announced Rian Johnson of “Looper” and “Brick” fame will both write and direct “Episode VIII.” Set to be released May 26, 2017, the eighth episode of the series will miss the 40th anniversary of Episode Four’s release by one day.
The world will get its next good look at J.J. Abrams’ “Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens” when the latest trailer debuts at the beginning of “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” If rumors are to be believed, this will also include the world’s first official look at the original cast back in action.
Travis Poppleton has been covering movie news, film reviews and live events for Deseret News and KSL.com since 2010 and co-hosts the FlixJunkies podcast. You can contact him at tspoppleton@gmail.com.
