Why didn't Rogue One: A Star Wars Story attract the same level of divisive fan reaction that subsequent Star Wars films did? Disney wrapped up its Star Wars sequel trilogy in 2019, and as the Skywalker saga came to a close, it left a less than harmonious chorus behind it. Both 2015's The Force Awakens and 2016's Rogue One faced a certain amount of criticism. J.J. Abrams' first effort was accused of being laden with fan service and ripping off the original 1977 film, while Gareth Edwards' spin-off was called-out for using CGI to reconstruct legacy characters such as Grand Moff Tarkin. Generally, however, both films were well-received, earned strong reviews and made lots of money.

The real problems began with The Last Jedi, directed by Rian Johnson and released in 2017. The middle installment of the sequel trilogy was a vastly different Star Wars effort and despite proving a big hit with critics, the widespread changes and deviations from The Force Awakens attracted no small amount of controversy. For entirely the opposite reasons, 2019's The Rise of Skywalker also courted heavy backlash. Under-performing both in reviews and at the box office, The Rise of Skywalker had a messy plot and was stuffed with exposition, leaving the novelization to fill in the many narrative gaps. Meanwhile, Solo in 2018 was beset with problems and endured the kind of middling response Star Wars simply isn't accustomed to.

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This leaves Rogue One the curious honor of being the last Star Wars film that didn't make at least one section of fans very angry indeed, but why is this?

Rogue One Had A License To Take Risks

Diego Luna as Cassian Andor in Rogue One

The Last Jedi marks the point where fans really began to turn on Disney's Star Wars, and the film's most cited criticism is how heavily Rian Johnson plays with franchise conventions. Luke Skywalker is a grumpy hermit, Rey is revealed to be nobody, Snoke is killed off mid-way through and there's a unique spin of the traditional climactic lightsaber battle thanks to Luke Skywalker's new Force projection ability. Add to that a generally grimier tone and a plot that didn't paint the good guys as whiter-than-white, and there's no argument that The Last Jedi was a stylistic departure. Strangely, however, Rogue One delved into territory just as dark, realistic and non-traditional as The Last Jedi, putting heavier focus on the military aspects of the fight between Rebel Alliance and Empire. And then everyone dies.

So why was The Last Jedi lambasted for mixing up the Star Wars formula when Rogue One had already been praised for doing exactly the same thing? The big difference rests upon Rogue One's status as a spin-off, compared to The Last Jedi's role as part of the main episodic movie series. As the first of its kind in the franchise, fans didn't quite know what to expect from Rogue One, but the natural distance between Gareth Edwards' movie and its Star Wars cousins implied a marked difference in story and tone was to be expected. Compared to the main movies, Rogue One also had to contend with far lower expectations by virtue of not being a sequel. Many fans complained about The Last Jedi's anticlimactic development of plot points from The Force Awakens, such as Snoke and Rey's parentage, whereas Rogue One is free of any preconceived ideas.

These factors gave Rogue One a license to experiment that generally went down well upon release. On the other hand, high anticipation and specific expectations hampered The Last Jedi and triggered backlash to Rian Johnson's reworking of the Star Wars mythology. It could even be said that Rogue One's deviations made fans ever hungrier for a more traditional Star Wars take - something The Last Jedi didn't provide.

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Production Issues Were Already Brewing With Rogue One

Jedha Staff Stormtroopers Donnie Yen Chirrut Imwe Star Wars Rogue One

Rogue One might be the last Star Wars movie that didn't slice the fandom like Obi-Wan's lightsaber sliced through Darth Maul's torso, but that doesn't mean the cracks weren't already starting to tell. Only the second of Disney's efforts in the galaxy far, far away following Abrams' The Force AwakensRogue One endured a very troubled production. Rogue One underwent extensive rewrites from a variety of different names, and the story continued to morph even after filming had been completed thanks to hefty reshoots that completely overhauled the movie's ending. Every film undergoes change during the editing process, and reshoots are becoming increasingly common in Hollywood, but by all accounts, Rogue One chopped and changed so drastically throughout production that a drastically different edit supposedly exists.

Somehow, Edwards and his team managed to pull victory from the jaws of defeat, delivering a movie that pleased audiences and turned a profit, despite a messy production. But Rogue One's troubles were a sign of things to come in terms of the ongoing struggle between Disney and filmmakers. Solo's Lord and Miller were replaced as directors with Ron Howard after failing to decide on a creative direction with the studio, and the same fate befell Colin Trevorrow on The Rise of Skywalker, with Abrams ultimately returning to the fold. Although unconfirmed, rumors of a creative struggle between Abrams and Disney on the most recent Star Wars movie were abound after The Rise of Skywalker's release. Looking further ahead, a trilogy of Rian Johnson Star Wars movies were announced by Disney, but now look uncertain, while Game of Thrones' Benioff and Weiss were part of the franchise for all of 5 minutes.

With hindsight, it seems clear that Rogue One's troubles were no isolated incident, and the film's success came in defiance of increasing Star Wars turbulence.

Rogue One's Handling Of Star Wars' Legacy

Daisy Ridley as Rey in Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker and Ian McDiarmid as Emperor Palpatine Darth Sidious

Glancing across all of Disney's Star Wars controversies, a majority of the criticism relates to the franchise's past. The Force Awakens was labelled an original film ripoff, The Last Jedi was targeted for mixing up the formula too much, and The Rise of Skywalker's Palpatine resurrection created a multitude of problems. There were many negative comparisons between Alden Ehrenreich's Han Solo and Harrison Ford's and, as mentioned previously, Rogue One's main bug bear were the CGI recreations of Tarkin and Leia. So often in the Disney era, Star Wars has fallen onto its own sword of canon.

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One of Rogue One's biggest victories is carefully balancing the past and present. Reviving late actors using CGI certainly wasn't to everyone's taste, but Rogue One's actual plot is more or less standalone, augmented with a backdrop of familiar elements. The core tale of Jyn Erso, Cassian Andor and the rest of the colorful gang is entirely self-contained and stands up even without the lore and history of the wider Star Wars world. Unlike the rest of Disney's Star Wars movies, the franchise elements are secondary in Rogue One, which is more of a war film at its heart. However, familiar moments, settings and characters are sprinkled throughout Rogue One, and Erso's mission helps explain the lingering question of why the Death Star would be built with such an obvious fatal flaw.

This approach serves Rogue One well, with just enough "Star Wars" to connect the film to George Lucas' famed galaxy, but not so much that the storytelling is bogged down in history or limited by established canon. It's no coincidence that The Mandalorian employs a similarly light spread of Star Wars history, and is arguably the best story of the franchise's Disney era.

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