What's that? You didn't know that there was a new Star Wars movie out next month? Well, maybe this will help get you up to speed:
And if you want to know a little more about Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, well, you came to the right place! Here are more highlights of the news from the galaxy far, far away.
Source: Star Wars canon itself
Probability of Accuracy: It's literally canon. It doesn't get more accurate than this.
The Real Deal: With a month to go until the release of Rogue One, a new prologue tie-in novel—Star Wars: Catalyst—A Rogue One Story—hit shelves last week. The book sets the scene for the movie in a number of ways, including laying groundwork for the relationship between Galen Erso and the Empire, revealing the origins of the Death Star, and explaining just what happened to Jyn as a kid. For those looking for clues for what to expect in the movie, this is the motherlode. Short of actually watching the movie itself, this is it.
Source: A team-up between Verizon Wireless and ILM
Probability of Accuracy: It's an unofficial official prologue to Rogue One from the VFX house behind the movie. Let's go with pretty damn accurate.
The Real Deal: Launched on Facebook of all places, Rogue One: Recon is a 360-degree experience prologue to the new movie, revealing what happened when the Rebels discovered the existence of the Death Star for the first time. The full thing can be explored in Verizon stores across the country, but the basic video is below. Don't watch if you're worried about bad things happening to (we assume) good people.
Source: Lucasfilm's VFX staff, via Entertainment Weekly
Probability of Accuracy: It comes from Lucasfilm, so it's pretty spot-on.
The Real Deal: The connections between Rogue One and other Star Wars movies continue with the revelation that the new movie's K-2SO was designed to echo two other droids fans have already seen. "It’s not the first time we’ve seen an Imperial droid," executive producer John Knoll told Entertainment Weekly. "There’s the Imperial probe droid and the sort of interrogation droid that have these black shells and a kind of sinister, evil-looking character to them." The design of the character is also based in part on stormtrooper helmets, Knoll said. But left curiously unaddressed was the fact that he also looks like the medical droid treating Luke in The Empire Strikes Back. What are they hiding?!
Source: Internet speculation and on-set photos
Probability of Accuracy: File under "Hazy, but not impossible."
The Real Deal: It's not all about Rogue One right now, of course; the Making Star Wars fan site has a report about new characters who'll show up in next year's Episode VIII, including a morally ambiguous "man in black" played by Benicio del Toro, an aristocratic Laura Dern who's described as looking like "The Hunger Games meets Star Wars" (so, Episode I-esque, then?), and a brief tease of Kelly Marie Tran's character, who is "very normal looking but her situation is supposed really cool." But what about Poe? And Kylo? That's what everyone wants to know.
Source: Carrie Fisher, via People magazine
Probability of Accuracy: There are only two people who know for sure, and one of them said it, so let's go with it for now.
The Real Deal: OK, so this is what you all are really here for, we know. Yes, Carrie Fisher has admitted, after four decades, that she and Harrison Ford had an affair on the set of the original Star Wars. "It was so intense," the actress and writer told People. "It was Han and Leia during the week, and Carrie and Harrison during the weekend." The affair, she said, only lasted about three months, but she remembers it fondly. "I was so inexperienced, but I trusted something about him… He was kind." This explains so much. And yet nothing at all.
