Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is more than just a prequel; it's an answer to a question that's been lingering in the Star Wars universe since the opening crawl in A New Hope first ran in 1977.
"It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire," the set-up for the first Star Wars film reads. "During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the Death Star."
But Rogue One goes farther than just showing the story behind those pivotal three sentences. Here's a breakdown of all the ways the new Star Wars film sets up events that play out in A New Hope. Full spoilers for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, as well as A New Hope and Return of the Jedi, continue below. Also make sure to check out IGN's review of Rogue One, and see if you caught all the Easter eggs, references and trivia!
The most obvious connection between the two films is the way Rogue One winds to a close, its final scenes setting up the opening moments of A New Hope. In Rogue One, Darth Vader tracks the relay of the Death Star plans from rebel ship to rebel ship, striking down alliance officers left and right. But the Rebels still manage to get the plans away from Vader in the Tantive IV, which of course Princess Leia is also on board.
Cut to the opening of A New Hope, where Vader's Imperial Star Destroyer is still in pursuit of Leia's diplomatic consular ship. It's unclear exactly how much time is supposed to pass between the end of Rogue One and beginning of A New Hope (a source for The Hollywood Reporter says it could be as little as 10 minutes). But whether it's minutes or days, Rogue One puts into context the conflict between the two forces, including why C-3PO says "there will be no escape for the princess this time." It also makes it evident why Vader so quickly dismissed Leia's claim she was on a "diplomatic mission to Alderaan" when he clearly saw her pull away from General Raddus's ship above Scarif.
"Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope." The crux of A New Hope is Leia getting the Death Star plans to Obi-Wan, who in turn needs to relay them to the Rebel Alliance. With it already established why Leia and the Tantive IV were on the run from Vader, Rogue One also set the stage for why the ship would come out of hyperspace over Tatooine: Bail Organa.
Rogue One shows Mon Mothma ask Bail Organa if his "friend, the Jedi" would help them in their fight against the Empire. Organa says he'll ask that friend, who we know is Obi-Wan, to come out of hiding -- almost in the same breath that he said a woman he'd "trust with my life" (who we know is Leia) would help them with their quest to get the plans.
This succinctly explains why Leia would turn to Obi-Wan as her "only hope" when she realized they wouldn't be able to pick him up off Tatooine. It's also why Obi-Wan would have a general idea of what was coming and already be ready to leave hiding when Luke Skywalker found him, and why he planned to regroup with Bail Organa on Alderaan before he found out the planet was destroyed.
There's also the question of how C-3PO and R2-D2 ended up aboard Leia's ship. Fans know that the two droids belonged to Captain Antilles before the Jawas pick them up on Tatooine, and Captain Antilles is the captain of Tantive IV. Rogue One does establish that C-3PO and R2 were on Yavin 4 in the lead-up to Jyn Erso's attack on Scarif, and considering Bail Organa name drops "Captain Antilles" while talking to Mon Mothma, we can presume that Organa tapped Antilles for the mission to help General Raddus almost immediately after he wrapped up his conversation with the senator. Thus, the droids were in the right place at the right time to get the plans to Obi-Wan.
Director Krennic and Governor Tarkin were at frequent odds over who would relay the success of the Death Star to the Emperor and Darth Vader, which helped establish why Tarkin would have been in control of the Death Star by the time A New Hope began. It's more than just that Krennic died on Scarif; Tarkin destroyed the base on Scarif knowing Krennic was down there, thus firmly establishing him as controller of the Death Star.
It also is a nice way to resolve why Krennic never would have been mentioned after the events of Rogue One. He and Tarkin had a contentious relationship, with Tarkin even telling the director that he would claim credit for the success of the Death Star in conversations with the Emperor and Vader. When Krennic was sent off to find Galen Erso and later investigate the Death Star plans on Scarif, Tarkin took control of the Death Star in his absence. Even if Krennic had gotten off Scarif alive, chances are Tarkin wouldn't have returned control of the weapon to Krennic -- and likely would have killed him to make sure he didn't try to take the Death Star back.
Rogue One needed to establish a good reason for the Emperor to dissolve the Senate (finally) in the first act of A New Hope, and it did so thanks to the Death Star's destructive power. Darth Vader and Tarkin both express concern in Rogue One over the Senate learning about the Death Star and thus, presumably, potentially making a move to stop it. Of course, once a massive moon-sized weapon destroys the spiritually significant Jedha City and the Empire's base on Scarif, it's sort of hard to ignore that the Death Star exists, which explains why the Emperor would use that moment to get rid of the Senate once and for all.
The Death Star's destruction of Alderaan in A New Hope served a number of purposes; not only was it a way for Vader to force Leia to give up the location of the Rebels' secret base, but it also was proof to the Emperor that the battle station was "fully operational." Even though the Death Star was used multiple times in Rogue One, that film still keeps the chronology in line with the weapon's first fully powered use in A New Hope. Krennic and then Tarkin only use a portion of the Death Star's power to destroy cities instead of planets, which is why its third use is fully powered.
Rogue One pretty explicitly lays out how such a big weapon like the Death Star could have such a small yet fatal flaw: revenge. The Rebels are well aware of this key weakness by the time the Death Star plans make their way to Yavin 4 in A New Hope, and that's because Jyn Erso's father Galen Erso explained to his daughter that the reactor system's weakness was his way of getting revenge on the Empire for forcing him to build the star killer.
It's that same weakness that gets exploited within the Death Star II in Return of the Jedi. Though the second Death Star wasn't complete, it stands to reason that no one would ever have known not to replicate building the reactor shaft the same way Galen Erso had. He only told his daughter Jyn, through a message relayed through Bodhi Rook to Saw Gerrera, about the fatal flaw in the Death Star. Even Krennic only got as far as being ordered by Vader to double check the plans to make sure Galen hadn't done exactly what he did, though Krennic never had time to realize exactly how Galen had given the Rebels the upper hand (and, of course, died soon after anyway).
One of the more fun pieces of connective tissue in Rogue One was how the Red Five callsign became vacant (RIP, Red Five 1.0) and why Luke would be tapped to fill that opening in the Battle of Yavin. After General Raddus engaged with the Empire's forces above Scarif, the Rebels sent in multiple X-Wing squadrons: Blue, Red and Gold. The Blue squadron was the only one to get below Scarif's shield and assist Jyn & co. on the surface battle, but Red and Gold squadrons fought in the space battle. (Fun fact: the Gold Leader and Red Leader scenes were unused footage from A New Hope.) Original Red Five, Pedrin Gaul, was killed during the battle over Scarif, which is why his X-Wing seat was vacant by the time Luke came around later.
"Hope" is a through-line throughout all of Rogue One, and the movie really sends the message home in its final scene. Princess Leia, finally revealed to the audience, sets up A New Hope in the most simple way imaginable, by saying that the Death Star plans that they managed to acquire are the Rebel Alliance's "hope." And thus, a new hope was born.
What were your favorite ways Rogue One set up A New Hope? Let us know in the comments below! And for more on the other A New Hope throwbacks, like Ponda Baba and the blue milk, check out all the Easter eggs, references and trivia in Rogue One.
Terri Schwartz is Entertainment Editor at IGN. Talk to her on Twitter at @Terri_Schwartz, and may the Schwartz be with you.
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