By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Dont call Rogue One: A Star Wars Story a prequel even if it is
a229a1f82510511fe8af6f7d6b49e4be117937f190739f1974ce209d35017ba9
Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher pose for a publicity shot for the 1977 film "Star Wars." - photo by Chris Hicks
A few months ago, in keeping with this columns prime directive, which is to address the pressing, hot-button issues on my beat and that, of course, is movies I tackled a very important and often misunderstood topic: sequel and prequel vs. sidequel.

Well, maybe people are not so much misunderstanding the topic as they are completely unaware of it. Which is to say, I had no idea there was such a word as sidequel until it was used in a Deseret News story.

This naturally prompted me to do some serious in-depth research using the only source for facts that is universally respected as accurate, thanks to its total rejection of fake news Wikipedia.

Said research consisted of typing sidequel into the Wikipedia search mode, which took me to sequel and its derivatives.

First, the obvious: Sequel and prequel are commonly used words meaning, respectively, a movie that continues the story of an earlier film and a movie that tells a story set before an earlier film.

Hence, Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi is a sequel to Star Wars while Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith is a prequel to Star Wars.

By the way, I am purposely using the title of the original film without Roman numerals or subtitles. When I first saw Star Wars, there were no Roman numerals and there was no subtitle; calling it "Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope" came along later.

Second, the oblivious: Sidequel refers to a movie that takes place in the same universe or time frame as a previous film but with different characters and its own story.

And Im rehashing all of this, why?

Because the folks at Disney and Lucasfilm took such pains upon the release last month of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story to ensure that no one would refer to it as a sequel or a prequel.

And they didnt use the term sidequel either, although that actually fits what they were going for.

Instead, the studio was insistent that Rogue One is a stand-alone film, the first entry in what has been officially dubbed the Star Wars Anthology Series.

So heres the plan: Every other year, well have a sequel to George Lucas original Star Wars timeline and on alternate years, well see stand-alone entries in the Anthology Series.

Thus, December 2017 brings us a direct follow-up to Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Disney/Lucasfilm is letting us call that one a sequel) and in December 2018, the second Anthology Series film will be about young Han Solo.

And I suppose that wont be a prequel either. Right.

Obviously, the goal is to set up a Star Wars film as the years biggest box-office hit each and every year.

Yes, its George Lucas universe and we just pay to watch it.

But, getting back to the original discussion here Im sorry, but Rogue One is definitely a prequel.

In fact, its a very specific prequel: To the original 1977 film that people of a certain age still think of as simply Star Wars.

All of the events in Rogue One lead directly to the beginning of Star Wars, and much of the story purposefully expands on what we know from that film, explaining aspects that went unanswered (and which no one cared about) in 1977.

In fact, Rogue One ends mere moments before Princess Leia sends R2-D2 to Tatooine with the Death Star plans, along with her holographic message to Obi-Wan Kenobi.

And if you dont know what any of that means really? Who doesnt know the plot of Star Wars?
Sign up for our E-Newsletters