Despayre makes the most sense of course. IF you are going to steal plans, you do it before the Death Star is complete. But in the old EU, Tarkin had Despayre destroyed by the Death Star to test the superlaser and tie up loose ends. When we first see it, the Death Star is not orbiting a planet, yet it is finishing testing before Tarkin orders in to Alderaan. Alderaan has no weapons (right) and is a Core World. The Empire usually isn't needed to have a presence in the Core Worlds. They only project their forces into the Outer Rim and the like were the rebellion are happening. In the Core the Empire tries to show off a propaganda face of the New Order. The Marvel people mentioned the opening crawl in the first Darth Vader comic is more or less the opening crawl to Empire Strike Back or A New Hope, but from the Empire's propaganda point of view.
Shame they didn't troll the crowd on the first watch through. Have the Death Star turn into view...with a set of Mouse Ears. Then show the real teaser. They filmed a seen for that in RotJ but cut it. So blasting Alderaan while troops were stationed there isn't so far from left field. The scene could work, if it's towards the end and after our heros have return in seeming victory. Then again the Legends EU, the DS cooked a couple of planets before it was "officially" deployed. So they could be doing something similar: it's a planet that's a rebel staging ground and ends up being a test site for the superlaser.
I don't really get the impression that's meant to be Alderaan. For one thing, the Death Star wasn't that close to Alderaan in ANH, and why would it. Hell, just how close would it have to be to appear that large in the sky? Also, the primary weapon seems to be pointed away from the planet, since we see it at an angle and not dead on which it presumably would have to be to fire on it. Me, I'm thinking this is some planet the Death Star orbited while it was under construction, just like the second one was above Endor.
Over, yes. The old EU had it as a prison/slave world were they slaves and prisoners were used as labor, including a large number of Wookiees. This still seem to be the case inthe current version. At least with the large number of Wookiees being used as slave labor. One assumes that is for the Death Star as that information mixed with the giant crystals being needed for the Superlaser makes it seem like the old data on the Death Star still holds true. They might change the planet's name if the Story Group wants it to be someplace else.
I'd not like to see Vader in this one to be honest because it would lead to small universe syndrome, i.e. all named big characters always appear everywhere in a huge galaxy that feels more like a small neighborhood. I'd like the new movies to branch out and establish cool characters of their own that people can talk about instead of only depending on established characters to make the movies interesting. I believe it's combat communications of the team who is stealing the plans and is under fire. I have read elsewhere (and it's been said here) that this movie will be more "realistic" and hardcore than the others which are more space opera. It's alluded that this movie will have more in common with the style of Saving Private Ryan than with a normal Star Wars movie and i am really excited to see such an attempt if done right. Reading all these news reaffirms my opinion that Disney taking over Star Wars from Lucas was the best that could happen to the universe. The true test will be this Christmas but i am very hopeful.
Sure we all love new characters, but the marketing potential by including someone as iconic as Darth Vader in the promotional material is self-explanatory. I will be very surprised if this movie does not feature either Vader or the Emperor, even in a minor scene away from the rest of the cast. I think that's taking things a bit too far. While the stuff we know about Force Awakens is pushing all the right fanboy buttons for me, and the stuff revealed so far about this Rogue One is certainly promising, I still think there is something to Lucas's "I've made all the movies I want and that's it" approach over Disney's MCU-esque megafranchise.
I have to say, I'm more excited by this teaser for Rogue One, than I am for The Force Awakens. As a side thought: Has anyone read the novel "Death Star"? That was a pretty cool read.
Yeah, but Vader seemed to be doing things for Tarkin in regards to the Death Star, and even seemed to be working out of it so he kind of is in the neighborhood. Plus he has to have some way to track the plans the Rebels will steal in Rouge One to Princess Leia so he can chase after her with a Star Destroyer.
First off I am excited by this and will definitely be closely following and ultimately seeing it, but my initial thoughts are brought back to the early days of video games where virtually every plot revolved around either destroying the Deathstar or acquiring the plans to aid in doing the same. I'm sure it will be a good movie but I can't yet shake the cynical thought that I guess there's no reason to get too creative right out of the Anthology gate. Anyway, I'm sure Keyan Farlander, Rookie One and Kyle Katarn have far more reason for concern than I could ever have. And besides, I don't think they exist anymore; They died about the same time as the EU.
Its possible there could be live action versions of Rebels characters in this. If not main characters perhaps brief cameos.
I agree that Vader as a distant menace should hang over pre-ANH movies, and maybe be glimpsed in propaganda/intel footage or perhaps very briefly in the flesh (er, in the armor), but not featured as a speaking or significant role. You mean the Lucas that immediately greenlit the Clone Wars series after Sith, who actually thought the first three episodes mashed together as a theatrical release was a good idea, who never stopped the ongoing production of SW videogames and toys and novels across decades, and who got the ball rolling and sketched out treatments for a sequel trilogy while negotiating the franchise's sale to Disney, with the full understanding that more movies would be made? That "That's it" Lucas?
That teaser was interesting. I like the idea of spin off/"anthology" movies, and I'm sure Rogue One will end up being great.
Lucas himself had very little involvement in Clone Wars or the tie-in material. And aside from the Clone Wars pilot, it has been a decade since a theatrical Star Wars release. Now we're getting a movie every year for at least the next six years.
Lucas had extensive involvement in Clone Wars. They ran all the scripts by him and he was constantly making suggestions to Dave Filoni the show runner. It was the novels and comics he had almost nothing to do with.
^ The hell he didn't! Lucas was very hands-on in the writing and pre-production of Clone Wars, and had final veto on everything that show did. (Indeed, he personally stepped in and totally rewrote the book on Mandalorians, throwing out most of what the EU had established up to that point.) He also supposedly had a major role in writing The Force Unleashed video game (and, sadly, it shows). EDIT: Ah, Mr. Light beat me to it.
Interestingly we got the concept wrong from the title. The thought was this was a Rogue Squadron movie (X-wings under Wedge Antilles) after at least The Empire Strikes Back (as I doubt they'd pull a Luke Skywalker run Rogue Squadron movie just like that). Instead we have something different. Perhaps X-wings will be involved. Perhaps some starfighter pilots we may have heard of will be involved that later get shot down near Yavin. Or maybe we'll get the name of that one Y-wing pilot that survived the Battle of Yavin.