Why Rogue One Will NOT Be Another Star Wars "Prequel"

Hello all!
Ever since the announcement of Rogue One, and more recently, the trailer, many people are anticipating the failure of the film (NOT the financial failure). The word "prequel" has not been used to describe this film by the marketing team, and for a good reason. The term "Star Wars prequel" instantly turns people off from the film, knowing the massive disappointment that the prequel trilogy was. Therefore, those fans who are relating that term to this film have their doubts, but I'm going to try to explain why this "prequel" will be different.

A New Cast
A big problem with the prequel trilogy was the creative restrictions. Lucas restricted himself for the sake on continuity of the saga. (This is also a big problem with the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show). He felt like he had to tell the story of Anakin so that everything lines up with how Episode 4 began. With this story, we are removed from the Skywalker family tree, there is the chance to actually show the grand scale of this galaxy far, far away, which up until this point, has revolved around one family. We are seeing the tyranny of the Empire and the ways of the rebels from a new perspective, which has the opportunity to change the way we view the original trilogy. 

Also, according to what is official as of the moment, there are hardly any characters from the Star Wars universe that we have seen before. What is official, is the plot of this film, which we all know how it ends. We are all aware that the Rebels succeed in their mission to steal the Death Star plans. Usually that would sort of ruin the emotional impact of the film, due to our knowledge of the finale, but I don't believe that that is the case. Instead of us not knowing the plot, we will care about the fate of the heroes. We actually don't know who lives and who doesn't in Jyn's gang of rebels. The characters have to be exceedingly well written for this to work, however. Our lead, Jyn Erso, played by Felicity Jones, has never been documented in any form of Star Wars work. This brings back to my whole point about creative freedom with this film. Because these characters likely won't make an appearance any where else, Edwards has the chance to do whatever he wants with them, and not follow what Disney needs for him to do. But, it is a talented filmmaker working with a talented cast, so I don't have many worries.


An Actual War
Despite the title of the world-famous franchise, Star Wars actually does not feature any wars, except the Clone Wars, but those are largely in other mediums, not the feature films. Also, battles such as the Battle of Endor are not exactly wars. From the looks of the trailer, this is a war film. It takes place in the middle of a Galactic Civil War, and a group of soldiers who are going to fight. We have a band of heroes going up against the impossibly large Empire, and with the money shot of them against the AT-AT walkers, just sells the fact that this is going to be our first actual war, in Star Wars.


Gareth Edwards
J.J. Abrams brought his own flare onto The Force Awakens, and it is very noticeable. Although the film is technologically advanced, it uses a blend of CGI and practical effects to recreate the aesthetics of the original trilogy, particularly A New Hope, while still having a modern look. Gareth Edwards already looks like he has his own theme going. The only film I have seen from this director is the 2014 Godzilla. Although there is improvement to be made, I did enjoy this film quite a bit. The filmmaking technique of showing the sheer size and grand scale of Godzilla was used superbly, and you already can see remnants of that in the trailer, with the Death Star. This is far greater than whatever Lucas was doing when he was crafting the prequel trilogy. He has yet to establish himself as an A-list director, but Star Wars is famous for making people famous. George Lucas, Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Hayden Christensen, Ewan McGregor, Daisy Ridley, and John Boyega all found their fame in a Star Wars film.


I went over all the trailers from this week on Tuesday if you wanna check it out! Apologies for the short post, but be ready for Saturday. There are over TEN large news stories from this week, and I will try to cover as many as possible.