Where Could We See More of the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Characters?

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is in theaters now, and fans are fawning over many of the characters in the film. Whether it’s the prowess of Donnie Yen‘s Chirrut Îmwe and Jiang Wen’s Baze Malbus in battle or their snappy give-and-take without, the pair are instant fan favorites. Jyn Erso’s ability to take command, but still be vulnerable and fragile, has won hearts over. Cassian Andor’s no-nonsense attitude, K-2SO’s comedic timing, Bodhi Rook’s refusal to give up – there’s a lot to love about these characters.

But with the standalone nature of the film, it also seems like this might be our first and only introduction to these characters. That is, unless one of these options is exercised!

Future Standalones

Naturally, this is where everyone’s mind goes first – the idea that we could see one or more of these characters in a future standalone film. After all, we don’t know their entire life stories, and we do know that at least one other standalone, the Han Solo movie, is planned to take place in the same interim between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.

So, should we renew our hopes for this to happen?

Well, probably not.

The whole point of the standalone films is to stand. alone. That means that interconnecting them in such an obvious way as to have one of the main characters from one show up in another would cheapen the idea, and would make the Star Wars universe smaller instead of expanding it. So despite one actor having a second movie option on their contract, don’t expect this to happen.

Novels

Novels are always a good way to expand the universe (see what we did there?) and reveal more about the legends of Star Wars (we did it again). But while it may seem like a novel idea (not even sorry) to write a book about one or more of the characters in Rogue One, it still seems fairly unlikely.

Thus far, the canon novels have been filling in the gaps between films, but almost entirely with new or different characters. If something is tying directly to another product, it comes out alongside it, like the Battlefront book and game, the Rebels lead-in novel hitting shortly before the series launched, or Catalyst, the Rogue One prequel, coming out about a month ahead of the film. Having a character from the movie get their own novel a few months or a year from now would be a new precedent – it’s not impossible, but it’s still fairly unlikely based on what they’ve been doing so far.

Marvel Comics

Now here’s a possibility. In fact, when Comicbook.com asked Marvel Comics editor on the Star Wars line Heather Antos if the possibility existed, she said a simple “Always!” Far from a confirmation, but not a shutdown, either.

Marvel started with comics that shared a fairly close timeline, between the events of Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, but quickly expanded out into other eras. The idea of them covering some of these characters’ back stories in “The Dark Times” is intriguing, and easy to see happening. We learned how C-3PO got that red arm in a comic book, so why not how Saw lost his legs? How Chirrut lost his eyesight? Something unrelated to bodily harm? The possibilities are endless.

Star Wars Rebels

Finally, the most likely option, and easiest by far to tie into: Star Wars Rebels. Currently taking place a couple of years ahead of the events of Rogue One, the animated series is already tied to the film, thanks to the appearance of the Ghost (their ship) and a couple of other great Easter Eggs.

It also just makes sense. If the Rebels crew, looking for more information on the Jedi, goes exploring in the galaxy, couldn’t that bring them to Jedha? And if they’re there, that gives them ample opportunity to meet Chirrut, Baze, and other Guardians of the Whills, or the Rebel extremist Saw Gerrera, or even Bodhi Rook, who is mentioned in the film as “a local boy” on Jedha, sewing some doubt into his head about the Empire’s morality.

It doesn’t hurt that Gary Whitta has already written episodes of the show. The writer is credited as one of the story developers for Rogue One and helped create these characters. Would he be up for the Rebels meeting some of the Rogue One crew on a trip to Jedha?

“Ha ha, that would be pretty cool :)” he said on twitter when asked. Yes, it would. Let’s make that happen, shall we?

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