Remember, many Bothans died to bring us this information.
The Hollywood Reporter has details from yesterday's panel at Star Wars Celebration 2015 in Anaheim, California, where Star Wars: Rogue One director Gareth Edwards appeared, with Pablo Hidalgo serving as panel moderator. They were joined by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and head of development Kiri Hart.
The film, starring Felicity Jones, will officially be called Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One, the first of a series of Star Wars spinoff films comprising -- you guessed it -- an anthology. "We really wanted freedom to do some films that could stand on their own, and tell new stories," said Hart.
Edwards mentioned that filming will begin this summer, but did come with a teaser trailer showing a jungle landscape, with a voiceover reusing dialogue from the late Sir Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi...
"For more than a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic...before the dark times, before the Empire."
The camera pans skyward, revealing the Death Star orbiting the planet.
Hidalgo revealed the official logline for the movie -- "A rogue band of resistance fighters unite for a daring mission to steal the Death Star plans." This, of course, means the film is a prequel to Star Wars Episode IV, showing the events of how the Rebel Alliance obtained the secret plans to the battle station.
Edwards added that Rogue One won't have easily definable heroes and villains, and also will be a war film. "It's called Star Wars," he joked to the audience. "It’s about the fact that God’s not coming to save us, and we’re on our own. The absence of the Jedi is omnipresent in the film. It hangs over the whole movie."
Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One is expected to arrive in theaters on December 16, 2016.