Rogue One would have made an excellent short film

Photo Credit: [Rogue One: A Star Wars Story] LucasfilmAs stated before, we’re not here to suggest you shouldn’t enjoy the version of Rogue One delivered to fans two years ago. It gets so much right. It looks incredible (perhaps the best looking Star Wars film ever), has a gripping final act, tickles the funny bone of completionist fan theorists, and made 1.056$ billion at the worldwide box office. It would be foolish to suggest that Rogue One was anything other than successful.

We are, however, suggesting that the film could have been formatted in a different – and shorter– way to more elegantly tell the story John Knoll envisioned about daring rebels acquiring the plans to the Death Star.

This history for Star Wars fans is well-worn – we’ve lived in this far off galaxy for over 40 years now. The nostalgia of this particular period of galactic conflict can be deployed as a shorthand with which to launch new stories far more quickly than the origin story trope allows for.

At the meta-level we’re suggesting that as the series continues – and continues to continue – that more chances can be taken with different forms of storytelling to imbue freshness and surprise to the War among the Stars.

And, lest you feel that we’re being uncharitable, we do recognize that the push for new content on the Disney+ streaming service amounts to just that – experimentation with different formats to tell new stories in the Star Wars universe. This is a great development. Lucasfilm should be applauded for trying something new. If successful this gambit could prove to be the basis for further exploration of storytelling formats, of which, short films should not be overlooked.

What do you think about a hypothetical Rogue One short? Would you like to see short films included in future Star Wars projects? Set your reactors to single core and fire off in the comments below!