Lucasfilm Affirms: There Will Be No Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Sequel (Obviously)

Apparently some fans and journalists were confused about what the word "standalone" meant when the Star Wars Story line of films were announced by Lucasfilm. That was the case in this month's Empire Magazine, which was chock full of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story news, images, and interviews. When chatting with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and VFX Supervisor John Knoll, they asked whether there was the possibility of a sequel to Rogue One, if it did massive success.

Well, they completely nixed the idea of there being a "Rogue Two" or any other sequel to the film.

"I think that's what makes it exciting," Kennedy told Empire. "You can just drop into Rogue One and not feel like you're being pulled along into something you need to make a commitment to. It means anything can happen."

What does that mean? That means any and every character can die, of course. After all, it's not like we saw any of these folks in the Original Trilogy.

"It's meant to be its own thing," agreed Knoll. However, there could be a spiritual sequel of sorts. "I have thought of something we could do if there was interest in doing another [standalone film] in the same vein. But nothing I'm ready to talk about."

That sounds like there could be another more traditional war-style film set in the Star Wars universe - in that realm, there are plenty of options. The old Expanded Universe, now known as Legends, covered that sort of thing extensively. Even in canon material, there are novels, episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, and more that have covered that sort of story; could Knoll be talking about a "Shadows of the Empire" style film? Maybe "Band of Brothers" starring some Clone Troopers? Who knows, but it's certainly intriguing.

Going back to sequels, Rogue One director Gareth Edwards pointed out that his film already has a sequel.

"I can tell you something. I'm not sure if this is gonna happen, but apparently they're considering doing a sequel where you'll find out what the Rebel Alliance did with the plans. Potentially it'll be directed by George Lucas, and you'll maybe see the result where they... blow up the Death Star," Edwards joked.

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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 Onetells 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."