Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I'm one of the people who wasn't 100% bowled over by Rogue One. It's a solid flick, gorgeously photographed, cast extremely well and has an attention to Star Wars universe detail that even the most ardent fan can't find fault in. Problem is I felt the movie had a lot of great pieces and didn't use them to their fullest potential.
I make all those points in my review, but one of the things that I find most interesting about Rogue One is a big positive and that's how it acts as a sort of canon bridge. Stylistically it not only ties the prequels to the Original Trilogy but it also ties in the Clone Wars and Rebels into the film universe as well.
You've seen a couple dozen of the exact same article that shows these connections (usually titled something like "The 72 Easter Eggs in Rogue One You Absolutely Didn't Notice You Dumb Schmuck" or something like that), like The Ghost and Chopper from Rebels popping up in the second half of the movie, but the biggest marriage to the animated Star Wars canon was the character of Saw Gerrera, played by Forest Whitaker, who had a small, but crucial part to play in The Clone Wars cartoons and ended up as a down and dirty insurgent fighter on Jedha.
That's more than an Easter Egg. Gerrera is a significant character in a live action Star Wars feature. Without Saw Jyn likely does not survive, the Death Star plans are never taken, their Super Weapon terrorizes the galaxy and the Empire probably wins.
It's the first time something that major has leapt over from the non-Star Wars lore and I don't think it'll be the last time. Rogue One felt a bit like a test run for mixing in some of the new canon and I think the fact that it feels like both a prequel to A New Hope and a sequel to Rebels is one of its stengthes. It fits very well within that time frame and I would not at all be shocked to see Lucasfilm a bit more emboldened to dip into the greatness of The Clone Wars and Rebels for their future films. I'm not sure we'll see a ton of that show up in the Saga pictures, but you better believe these one-offs will take advantage of this "officially official" canon material just sitting around here.
And then the real cross-overs begin. Like today's news of Forest Whitaker returning to play Saw in Rebels. He'll voice the character and we'll get to see a little bit of what he's up to before the events of Rogue One.
His episodes will begin airing in January and the Star Wars Universe gets deeper and more detailed once again.
Pretty neat, huh? Now we just have to work on those "Ezra Is Snoke" fan theories a bit more and make them fit into the Saga films!
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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