‘Rogue One’ Director Explains the Meaning Behind the Film’s Title
Thanks to modern journalism, we already know quite a bit about Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, including character names and background info, new aliens and villains, and even new spaceships we’ll see in the upcoming spinoff. The only thing that hasn’t been extensively covered as of yet is the film’s mysterious title, which is no longer a mystery thanks to director Gareth Edwards.
In a new interview with Empire magazine, Edwards explained what “Rogue One” means, and it’s not really all that surprising — in fact, it’s a tiny bit silly:
‘Rogue One’ is a military call sign to some extent, but this is the first film that’s gone off-piste and is not part of the saga – or the Anakin story – so it’s the ‘rogue’ one, you know?
As many fans know, “Rogue” was the nickname given to the Red Squadron of Rebel pilots featured in The Empire Strikes Back. As Edwards explains above, not only does his anthology film reference the team of pilots from George Lucas’ Star Wars sequel, it acts as a cheeky description of how the movie fits into the franchise. It also describes the new group of protagonists led by Felicity Jones’ Jyn Erso, who has a pretty memorable line in the trailers about rebelling.
The film also stars Riz Ahmed as Rebel pilot Bodhi Rook, Diego Luna as Captain Cassian Andor, Forest Whitaker as Saw Gerrera (a character that originated on Clone Wars), Mads Mikkelsen as Jyn’s father Galen Erso, Ben Mendelsohn as the villainous Director Orson Krennic, Donnie Yen as the blind warrior Chirrut Imwe and Alan Tudyk as new droid K-2SO. Jimmy Smits and James Earl Jones will reprise their franchise roles as Bail Organa and Darth Vader, respectively.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hits theaters on December 16.