Rogue One: Title Explained by Director Gareth Edwards

We've come to learn quite a lot about Gareth Edwards' Rogue One: A Star Wars Story over the last few months. We've received two equally enthralling trailers for the Star Wars spin-off while also learning a whole lot more about Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) and her team of rebels looking to steal the plans to the Death Star. There's still plenty of mystery left to pick over and today, the film's director applied a little light to one question that has spurred plenty of speculation, that being the title.

rogue-one-official-a-star-wars-story-death-troopers — Image via Lucasfilm

Speaking with Empire, Edwards gave three different meanings for the term "Rogue One," beginning with the most obvious: a call sign between pilots in the special Rogue squadron of the Rebellion. He went on to say that the title also refers to the film being the odd-man-out in the Star Wars franchise and to Jyn herself, a pure rebel who takes on something of a suicide mission. Here are his exact words via THR:

"'Rogue One’ is a military call sign to some extent...this is the first film that's gone off-piste and is not part of the saga –- or the Anakin story — so it’s the 'rogue' one, you know?”

"It's kind of describing [Felicity Jones' character] as well in a similar way...It has [all] these split, multiple meanings that made it feel like the right choice."

Most of these concepts have been in my mind at one point or another when thinking about the movie, but it's good to hear Edwards acknowledge all these meanings in his own words. It speaks to the depth of meaning that will be worked into Edwards' film, being at once stylistically different yet in the same franchise as The Force Awakens and a film focused largely on the soldiers of the wars, rather than the higher-ups.

Here's the official synopsis for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story:

From Lucasfilm comes the first of the Star Wars standalone films, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” an all-new epic adventure. In a time of conflict, a group of unlikely heroes band together on a mission to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Empire’s ultimate weapon of destruction. This key event in the Star Wars timeline brings together ordinary people who choose to do extraordinary things, and in doing so, become part of something greater than themselves. In theaters December 2016.

For more on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, be sure to get caught up with all of our recent coverage:

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'Rogue One' Director Gareth Edwards Explains Three Meanings Behind Title