Rogue One Is Rogue One a True Spin-off?

I now feel like ANH and RO are tied together the way I always felt TESB and ROTJ were... RO leads directly into ANH (so that's obvious) TESB and ROTJ (whilst having a 6 months or so gap) continues on with the direct story of Han being rescued and all the story threads from Empire.

Imagine where they could go with the 3 year gap between ANH and Empire! This is where I would personally throw the Boba Fett film in.

 

Well, that's just a marketing/pr decision, isn't it?
Again, technically speaking this is definitely a prequel. And finally a good one at that.

 

It's definitely not a 'standalone' movie, which I often see it described as in the media and sometimes from LF people.

 

Why would they not market it as a prequel? An entire generation of fans experience Star Wars through the prequels - "Sequel to Revenge of the Sith" would have most of my friends for instance chomping at the bit for Rogue One! Simple answer - it wasn't a sequel or the prequel, it was it's own thing.

Also, I would suggest you avoid throwing out jabs at the prequels like you just did. They have plenty of fans and this forum has express rules against that sort of thing.

 

This supplemental standalone spin-off story is most accurately described as a prequel sequel.

 

As long as Disney and LFL call them a spin-off movie (Anthology), then this is how I call it.

For me? It is part of the saga.

 

There are tons of reason not to market it as a prequel. Even to me a fan of the PT I would have been put off a little if they marketed it as another Prequel (we already have 3).

They disguised a prequel as a spinoff. That is the whole point of the thread. To discuss now that we have seen it, what it truly is and not what Disney marketed as.

 

Yes! I hope the Boba Fett story takes place exactly where you suggest. It would be cool since it would be different - the galaxy would be in open war, so the Empire wouldn't be able to keep track of all the hunters - a perfect time for a showdown between Boba Fett and Cad Bane to see who is the premier bounty hunter.

That's my idea at least, what do you think?

 

Exactly. In publishing, IIRC, your book is assigned a genre based on marketing considerations. Science fiction or fantasy? Depends on which set of readers is more likely to pick it up. It's the same in this case.

 

Rogue One works because its adding and dovetailing quite well into Episode 4, how the character driven anthology films, mainly the Han Solo and the alleged Boba-Fett/Obi-Wan standalones would have a much higher hill to climb in terms of box office

I'm actually least interested in Boba Fett standalone out of all of that. An Obi-Wan Yojimbo style 'small scale' jidai geki flick where's he's policing some small town in Tatooine from bandits and is a sword for hire there without his employers knowing he's actually a Jedi in hiding would absolutely be something I want to see, but I don't know how marketable that would be.

 

Darkslayer, whilst you are right about the jab comment - Why care anymore? I only say this because with so many Star Wars films coming out the fan base is going to get incredibly fractured between which films they do like and don't... You will have combinations of every type.

Some will only like the OT (and then some will even drop Jedi from this)
Some will only like the PT
Some will like the 6 film saga but not the ST
Some will like the OT + the ST but not the PT
Some will love RO more then any other film
Some will hate the HS film just because it doesn't have Harrison
Some (like me) will love Caravan of Courage but HATE Battle for Endor
Some will actually count the Holiday Special as canon

etc, etc, etc

Do you see where I am going with this? Obviously the mods do the best they can to stop obvious trolls spewing out the same stuff over and over again ad-nauseum...

 

Well, good news - after the Han Solo movie, those are the two spinoffs that are probably next!

 

It's both a spin-off and a prequel, but I think it's more appropriate to refer to it as the former rather than the latter, since "prequel" is a comparatively vaguer term. It's a prequel in that it's a film set prior to A New Hope that was released afterwards, and a spin-off in that it follows completely new characters who have their own stories that are completely separate from the core narrative of the Saga.

I'm personally super psyched for a Boba Fett film, just because I love the character for totally superficial reasons and would love a movie that shows him to be the badass we're told he is in TESB. And although I'm not sure whether or not they're going to do an Obi-Wan film, I'd also love to see one that's more or less exactly as you described, and I think they could market the hell out of that. Throw in a sequence where Obi-Wan has to fight off a Krayt dragon so that there's at least one "blockbuster" action scene, and I think it'd do really well.

 

dp

 

Now that I've had a few days to process it, maybe Rogue One isn't as required viewing as I initially thought. I think it's acceptable to watch the main chronological saga in Episodes 1-7+, and then maybe as an aside, watch Rogue One to fill in a gap and tell a one off story. There is such a long time span between Episodes 3 and 4 that I don't think RO will necessarily be required viewing until the story between the end of ROTS and the events leading up to RO is told. I think a movie detailing the rise of Vader within the Empire and the rise of the Empire throughout the galaxy following ROTS would make that and RO a perfect set of films to bridge the PT and the OT, and thus, making them required viewing when watching the saga chronologically. But at this point RO is still a one off until the story leading up to it gets told.

 

Avnar how can you say that about Battle for Endor???
It is definitely the better of the two Ewok films.
Teek is the balls!

 

required viewing depends on what you mean. Technically none of the PT is "required viewing", they add immensely to the universe and the backgrounds of key characters from the OT, but the OT did just fine without them. Just like RO. Don't need to see it, but it adds quite a bit to the universe (particular getting to see imperial territory more as the OT spent most of its time in the outer rim and out of core imperial territory).

 

I saw COC (um...er...bad acronym) as a child and loved it! (Saw it before any SW film) I actually didn't find out there was a sequel to it until I brought it on DVD as a 2 pack and was like "What the hell is Battle for Endor???" Watched it and hated it Grrrrr

*bare in mind I was a child and had a lot of nostalgia with COC - BFE was seen through my adult eyes...when the inner child was dead*

 

Well it's not Episode 3.5 - Rogue One, is it?

 

No it is the beta for episode 4.

So Episode 4.0 version .9

 

TBH, I would say all the movies and TV shows are required viewing because Star Wars is awesome

 

ya, but he was saying from a central story perspective. In reality the only required material is the OT. Everything else exist to expand outward from that. PT, ST, Rebels, Clone Wars. You have to look at video games like Knights of the Old Republic to find material that is truly stand alone (I guess some books too).

 

Haha, fair enough sir.
My experience was the opposite. As a kid I watched BFE repeatedly, loved it. Not so much with COC, I didn't see it as often and didn't feel so connected.
In my nostalgia, I still LOVE the BFE movie (although even as a kid I thought the bird lady was inconsistent with the world of the OT).
Through my adult eyes, I think BOTH of the Ewok movies are pretty crusty.

 

Technically all prequels and sequels are spinoffs. R1 is clearly a prequel and not a standalone; it's practically meaningless without ANH.

 

I guess from a marketing and business stand point, they were hedging their bets - labelling it (ridiculously so, going by the ***** titles) as a "stand-only" movie would mean that if it did, say, crash and burn a la "Fantastic Four" or whatever, it would hopefully minimally impact the main Star Wars brand (the cash cow that is the ST).

It was very illuminating (briefly) hanging out with the Disney minions at Celebration lets say.