Apparently, the Star Wars spin-offs will uphold the true definition of standalone movie, at least for the time being. Fans believe that the entire Rebel crew at the heart of next month's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will all perish before mission's end. That seems even more true now that Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has all but confirmed that there won't be a sequel. Which shouldn't come as a surprise to most.
In the pantheon of Star Wars that exists now, there is no mention of any new character from Rogue One in the existing canon. Jyn Erso is never mentioned by name in A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, nor Return of the Jedi. And because of this, most fans believe she will perish along side Captain Cassian Andor and his crew. Or at least, the few remaining survivors will have gone into hiding, like Saw Gerrera, played by Forest Whitaker. There are a lot of new ships, droids and aliens also being introduced that will never be seen again. Which has lead to some speculation that the Death Star is involved with some kind of very devastating event that wipes out quite a lot of what is built up in this new movie.
Tickets for Rogue One went on sale early this week. And the response has been phenomenal. The first-ever Star Wars spin-off is tracking at $130 million, which is grand by any standard for a franchise starter. But the franchise here sounds like it will just be stand-alone spin-offs. The goal of these movies is to expand the universe in all ways possible. So perhaps lingering on the construction of another Death Star just isn't the way to go.
News that Rogue One won't get a sequel shouldn't be too surprising to anyone who has seen the 1977 original. The movie was conceived as a standalone movie from the get-go. Talking with Empire Magazine, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy stated that there will not be a Rogue Two.
Some have speculated that Jyn and her team of Rebel spies could still exist in the current Star Wars canon, that perhaps they all went into hiding and are like this galaxy's answer to Ocean's Eleven as they go around the universe doing secret missions. And let's not forget there was a second Death Star under construction in Return of the Jedi. Even if Jyn Erso perishes, there could always be a Rogue One sequel that follows the Bothan spies who gave their lives so that Lando Calrissian could blow up that particular space station. But that probably won't happen. Not for a long time.
Rogue One won't be the last standalone movie in the spin-off series, but it doesn't mean other Star Wars spin-offs won't be sequalized. When Alden Ehrenreich was cast as Han Solo in a spin-off based solely on that iconic space pirate, it was reported that he signed on for a three-picture deal and that it will be a trilogy that takes place ten years before we meet the smuggler in A New Hope. There is a third spin-off planned for 2020, believed to revolve around Bounty Hunter Boba Fett. If that does get announced, it wouldn't be hard to imagine that as a serialized franchise with sequels either.
Along with this news about Rogue Two not happening, we also get new photos from Empire. They put a spotlight on some of the new alien creatures that we'll be meeting, all of whom we never see again in the currently existing canon. There are also images of new droids and new humans. You can check them out here, then be sure to check out Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in theaters December 15 for advanced Thursday previews.
