With less than two months left until the first Star Wars spin-off, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, hits theaters, anticipation is higher than ever. With the final trailer arriving last week, it remains to be seen how much more footage will be unveiled, but today we have some new details about this project. While it hasn't been confirmed by Disney or LucasFilm yet, the Rogue One runtime has been revealed.
Making Star Wars came across listing for Australia's Event Cinemas, which lists the Rogue One runtime at 133 minutes (two hours and 13 minutes). If this is accurate, the runtime is five minutes shorter than last year's Star Wars: The Force Awakens and its 138-minute runtime. It is also the exact same runtime as the first prequel, The Phantom Menace. Some fans are claiming this is too short for what needs to be accomplished in this movie, while others are calling the runtime perfect in an age of bloated blockbusters. All in all, the runtime falls in line with the 2 hour mandate set by the earlier Star Wars movies.
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.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is directed by Gareth Edwards and stars Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, Riz Ahmed, Jiang Wen and Forest Whitaker. Kathleen Kennedy, Allison Shearmur and Simon Emanuel are producing, with John Knoll and Jason McGatlin serving as executive producers. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story opens in U.S. theaters on December 16, 2016, going up against Warner Bros.' Collateral Beauty, starring Will Smith.
Rogue One will be the first of three Star Wars standalone movies that have been confirmed thus far. The second will focus on a young Han Solo, set before A New Hope, which stars Alden Ehrenreich as the beloved smuggler and Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian, which is set to hit theaters on May 25, 2018. The third spin-off is believed to center on Boba Fett, which is expected to hit theaters in 2020. Hopefully LucasFilm will confirm the runtime of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, along with more details in the near future.