Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso in 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' (Photo : YouTube/ StarWars)
"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" has just released and early reviews are already quite positive, with the film garnering an 84 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing. Despite its success, Disney and Lucasfilm have confirmed that there will be no sequels.
According to a report from Bustle, the only sequel for "Rogue One" is the original 1977 "Star Wars: A New Hope" movie directed by George Lucas. This is reportedly evident in the opening crawl for "A New Hope" in which a summation of the events in "Rogue One" is detailed.
The opening crawl details a band of rebels that fought against the Galactic Empire and stole the Death Star plans. These plans were then delivered to Princess Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) and by the beginning of "A New Hope" she was taking those plans to Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guiness) on Tattooine.
This would make "A New Hope" tie directly to the events of "Rogue One" and no other sequel for the latter is necessary. This point was also stated by director Gareth Edwards, who told Empire Magazine (via /Film) if there would be a follow-up "that sequel will be directed by George Lucas."
Edwards' statement was supported by Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy and visual effects icon John Knoll. Both told the magazine that "Rogue One" was a stand-alone film that set up the events that take place in "A New Hope."
It should be noted that "A New Hope" does not feature the rebel heroes from "Rogue One." Instead focuses on the adventures of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) as he and Leia try to put the stolen Death Star plans to good use. The only recurring characters between both films are the villains Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing) and Darth Vader.
"Rogue One" is currently out in theatres. A separate spin-off film, the untitled Han Solo movie, is scheduled to release on May 2018 and will be followed by "Star Wars Episode VIII" on Dec. 15, 2017.
