The first thing Disney did when they bought the Star Wars franchise was to decide to release one movie per year. The way it seems they’re going to do that is to start with the “major Episode” movie “The Force Awakens” in December of this year, kickstarting a new overarching story with a consistent cast of characters, and then release a spinoff movie next December. The process seems to be to alternate between “Episodes” and one-off “anthology” movies.
I’m ok with that.
Disney has released information about the first spinoff, “Star Wars: Rogue One,” to be released December 2016. This will be a prequel of sorts… it’s about the rebels stealing the plans for the first Death Star (the plans featured in the original Star Wars, which Princess Leia loaded into R2-D2 at the beginning of the movie). Good news: NO JEDI. Seriously. Screw those guys.
From a certain point of view, we know how the movie ends: the plans get stolen and delivered to Leia. On the other hand… it could well be that every single rebel spy dies in the process. Additionally… you can bet Vader will show up.
The teaser that was shown (but doesn’t seem to have been officially released yet, so this is cameraphone footage… and it may get a takedown soon enough) doesn’t reveal much, but it does have a nifty shot.