Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (or simply Rogue One) is a 2016 American epic space-opera film directed by Gareth Edwards. The screenplay by Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy is from a story by John Knoll and Gary Whitta. It was produced by Lucasfilm and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the first installment of the Star Wars anthology series. The cast includes Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, Riz Ahmed, Jiang Wen, and Forest Whitaker.
Based on an idea first pitched by Knoll ten years before it entered development, the film was made to be different in tone and style from the traditional Star Wars films, omitting the customary opening crawl and transitional screen wipes. Principal photography on the film began at Pinewood Studios near London in early August 2015 and wrapped in February 2016. The film then went through extensive reshoots directed by Gilroy in mid-2016. Rogue One follows a group of rebels on a mission to steal the plans for the Death Star, the Galactic Empire‘s super weapon, just before the events of A New Hope.
The film premiered in Los Angeles on December 10, 2016, and was released in the United States on December 16. It received positive reviews from critics, with praise for its acting, action sequences, direction, musical score, visual effects, and darker tone, but received some criticism for its underdeveloped characters and digital recreation of actors from the original trilogy. It grossed over $1 billion worldwide, making it the 35th-highest-grossing film of all time (20th at the time of its release), the second-highest-grossing film of 2016, and the third-highest-grossing film in the Star Wars franchise. It received two Oscar nominations for Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects.