Fans of “Star Wars” have been cautiously keeping an eye on the development of “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”, wondering what the final product is going to look like. It’s become pretty clear at this point that this is not going to be an ordinary installment in the franchise, and fans should prepare for something different. But to what extent?
Recent reports indicate that the film will offer a fresh new look at the franchise, painting it in a slightly darker light. What this means exactly is of course open to interpretation, and the producers could actually do quite a lot to make a “Star Wars” film darker than the originals.
It’s a good thing that this is not an entry in the main franchise with that in mind, as many fans would definitely be displeased with seeing their favorite series change its appearance so significantly. This allows the producers of “Rogue One” to actually be quite bold in their experiments, and do more than they normally would have if they were working on one of the main films.
And “Star Wars” fans should be used to the idea of spin-offs by now anyway, so this won’t annoy many die-hard fans of the franchise. We’ve seen various attempts – some successful, some not so much – to explore the series in different directions, including even animated series. This makes it possible for any kind of “Star Wars” film to break through and become successful, provided it tells its story right.
Something else the new film is reportedly going to do is expand the franchise’s character roster. “Star Wars” already has a very expansive universe full of interesting personalities, but fans pretty much unanimously agree that a lot more can be done to make it even more exciting.
New species and creatures are not out of the question, and we’ve already seen some previews for “Rogue One” which made fans wonder what exactly they’re looking at. Indeed, there is a lot of mystery around the promotion of this film, and it looks like this was exactly what the producers intended, as it also generates a lot of discussion for it.
Some fans are apparently disappointed that they’re not getting an installment in the actual main franchise this year, but that definitely doesn’t have to be a bad thing, considering we just got “Episode VII” in 2015.
Releasing the next film right now would mean that it was obviously rushed behind the scenes, and considering the importance of the “Star Wars” franchise in the overall movie industry, that would be a disastrous move for the studio.
Back to “Rogue One”, it’s been implied that the film could also portray the rebels in a slightly different way, making their place in the story a bit more dubious than before. While it would be strange to see such a take on them after so many installments in the franchise that painted them in a certain light and established their position, some fans seem to agree that this would be a good thing for the franchise as a whole.
After all, “Star Wars” built its reputation partially on the idea that nothing is black and white, and there are always some nuances to both the good and the bad guys. It might be time to take a slightly different look at the story, with that in mind, and see how things could be examined from the opposite direction.