Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Novel Cover and Release Date Revealed

The official prequel novel to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, titled "Catalyst," is on store shelves next week, telling the story of how the Erso family, including Jyn and Galen, first crossed paths with the Empire and Director Orson Krennic. But the day the film itself comes out, a novelization will also hit, offering a deeper look into the world of Rogue One.

The Rogue One Novelization will hit in eBook form the day of the film release, December 16, 2016, as written by Star Wars novel and comicbook alum Alexander Freed. A hardcover will follow, but Del Rey didn't have a release date to announce just yet for that edition. Last year's Star Wars: The Force Awakens novelization included a lot of new details and scenes that wound up on the cutting room floor; for example, Kylo Ren recognized Rey in some form during their climactic battle, and she felt and heard a strong temptation to the dark side during that same fight. The potential for considerable insight in the Rogue One novel is high, especially with such a large primary cast.

The cover echoes one of the posters, featuring Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) at the top, with the Darth Vader/Death Star image from a couple of the posters looming behind her and the plans for the battlestation projected on her face and shoulder. The droid K-2SO (Alan Tudyk), Captain Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), Saw Gerrera (Forrest Whitaker), Chirrut Îmwe (Donnie Yen), Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen), and Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed) round out the Rebel Alliance crew, with the villain Director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) right alongside them. The shot of the Empire in force on the tropical planet Scarif sits underneath the logo (see the full cover below).

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hits US theaters December 16, 2016. Directed by Gareth Edwards, it's the first of the new standalone features from Lucasfilm and Disney, which take place outside the core "Skywalker Saga" of films noted by an Episode number. Rogue One tells the story of the small band of rebels that were tasked with stealing the plans to the first Death Star. The story spins directly off the opening crawl from the original Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. In that crawl, it read: "Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet."

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