Rogue One What if Rogue One was released before Force Awakens?

There's no way it would have worked out well for TFA if RO came out the year before it. The criticisms for its many short comings would have been much louder and people would have been much less forgiving.

 

Maybe if RO came out first, they would have refilmed TFA with someone else other than JJAbrams!

 

I agree. Rogue One also would have made more than the astronomical amount it did.

 

This.

 

Rogue One was always going to be a more risky film for Disney to put out. I fully understand why they used JJ on TFA and why the movie was as safe as it was.

However it is an interesting thought experiment. I think Rogue One surprised a lot of people; I certainly never expected it to be THAT good. I enjoyed TFA, but yeah... after seeing Rogue One it did drop a few notches in comparison... and I do wonder if TFA would have received less critical acclaims than Rogue One had it come out second (obviously it's subjective but to me Rogue One is a significantly better film).

There's not a small number of reviews that declare it the best SW film since The Empire Strikes Back (and I fully agree with that).... I've actually seen quite a few that call it the best Star Wars film period... not sure I'm ready to there yet, but it's not out of the question (although the nostalgia factor of TESB (and ANH for that matter) is hard to top when you combine it with how good the films are). While the critical reception has been similar... I don't recall many people saying TFA was the best since TESB or the best SW film period (could be selective memory of course )

I think the reception of Rogue One is only going to grow over time, it's definitely a much more re-watchable film than TFA.

 

I do actually wonder whether were seeing the start of a general shift in the blockbuster climate, for years its been dominated by lighter Abrams/Marvel style yet in recent months we've seen both Rogue One and Logan do very well pushing a more serious style that hasn't seen much success since the end of Nolans Batman.

 

It's very welcome in my book. I much prefer the more serious tone. Actually I thought X-men first class and days of future past struck nice tones as well

 

I think RO would be a huge hit if this happened. IMO, RO is better than TFA, on different scales. Originally, I wasn't that hyped for RO (probably because I didn't see the trailer that much), but after I watched the film - I was like, "This movie is so GOOD!"

If RO was released earlier, I think more people would be intrested in the 'new-era' of Star Wars. I feel like some fans dropped out after watching TFA.

 

I see how this could have gone a few different ways. It could have been approached like a live action follow-up to the "Rebels" cartoon that bridges the gap.

 

It would have probably made more in the box office, but not as high as 2b, and TFA would have probably made less as a follow-up, but still high due to the returning cast and being the first saga movie after more than a decade (and the light-hearted storytelling is still more general audience-friendly than a war movie where everyone dies).

But yeah, I do think TFA would have been hit with a lot more criticism if it was following RO instead of the PT. So the way they did it I think it was the best way for both critical success and box office success. RO is a movie that could have been released any time, but the magic of TFA only works as the first SW entrance after a long period of accumulated hype, nostalgia and disappointment for the PT.

 

If RO had been released first, then TFA would have probably seemed downright cartoonish. RO would have completely set the tone for this modern re-emergence of SW, and we would have had an entire year to sit on that and let it sink in that this is the new direction SW movies are taking. Any and every discussion about it would be under that assumption. And then to see TFA not live up to that would have been a big disappointment. The director and writers would have been heavily criticized over it, and it would be continually used as an example of what not to do. Which would then place a lot of pressure squarely on the third movie to get back to the standard that had been set by RO. Don't get me wrong, I like TFA, a lot. And it was smart of Disney to do it the way they did, because with the order these movies were actually released, there's really no hard expectations for future releases to be any certain way. We kind of just are willing to accept that we get what we get and that some will be more of a hit than others.

 

TFA were really good for sure. Rogue one too but a few less. Finaly I found the new star wars really correct.

 

Amen. Though there should still be humor. Just more naturalistic humor, and less of that Marvel-style banter and 4th-wall breaking meta comedy. Leave that to actual parodies.

 

Rogue One would likely take fewer tonal risks, such as the downer ending. I don't think as much hype would have been built either. Bringing back Star Wars to the cinema using an anthology film before a saga film would make little business sense. I mean just look at how much money TFA made.

 

If they were both made exactly the same way, I think it would lower my opinion of TFA even more. It's currently my least favorite star wars movie, while RO is my 3rd favorite. If I had seen RO first, I would have had high expectations for TFA.

As it actually was, my expectations for TFA weren't real high as I was kind of apprehensive about the whole Disney era of SW films. But even then it didn't meet my expectation level.

 

Personally, I don't think it would have made a difference. Abrams was already filming TFA when Edwards was filming RO. They were nearly finished filming RO when TFA was released, so what Edwards had in mind and was putting to film would not likely ave been affected by Abrams and TFA. The same with RO's effect on TLJ, and so on.

 

Disney purchase and anticipation of a new trilogy aside, I can see a world where "Rogue One" would have come out between Episode III and an unannounced Episode VII. Going back and filling things in was done like that with "The Clone Wars," and the Ewok movies. Has this movie come out well before an Episode VII, there would have been fewer similarities between the two (a traitor of the bad guys, the Death Star, infiltration of an Imperial/First Order base) and the saga film might have been less derivative.

 

I agree with this. RO would have been a kind of "re-introduction" movie before TFA. It would have hyped up everyone, perhaps even more than they did, upon seeing the TFA trailer for the first time.

 

TFA is what got me into SW.My younger brother loved SW but i wasn't really interested in it until I saw TFA. And then I saw RO and LOVED it! I am a massive SW fan even more than my brother. Jyn is my fave character. SW has definitely caught my imagination. First post of mine btw so hi everyone!!!

 

Thanks, Scoundrel!!

 

I think Rogue One would have been even more successful than it was.

And I think there would have been a more negative reaction to TFA than there was.

 

Probably as others have stated, a more critical reaction to TFA and even better box office for Rogue One.

 

TFA had that appeal and RO did not. If it would have come out first it would have not made a lot money. Sure, we would get the standard $750 million, but not the colossal amount of money. TFA was a buildup. The teaser trailer that came out Dec. 2014 with the music had this emotional thing going, that everyone knew that come Dec 2015, that was the movie to watch.

 

I was watching RO the other night for the umpteenth time. And for some reason it dawned on me that this is an absolutely fantastic science fiction movie! Perfectly crafted, deep, and realistic in terms of how we might imagine a world like that.

And I think it would have had an even greater response than it did had it come out before TFA. Now, most of the replies to this thread are concerned with how RO would have impacted the response to TFA (mine included from a while back). But thinking about RO totally by itself, had this been the newest installment to the Star Wars saga, with enough time having passed since the prequel era that it would be considered separate from that, and with nothing to compare it to or expectations about it henceforth, I think it would have been hailed as an absolute masterpiece of science fiction that would rank up there with any of the great movies in that genre.

But the fact that TFA came out before it and set the stage for this new era of SW more or less framed RO as being a part of that. I think it was impossible for audiences to separate it from that. And in that context, it was, and still is, simply a high point in what is perceived as a whole when you combine all the movies coming out right now. Rather than seeing RO as its own movie.

And further, lets say the next three movies don't quite hit the mark. And RO stands above them all as being the best one to come out in this era. Again, I think RO being included as a part of this whole will ultimately not give it the recognition it would get had it been released separate from it all.