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How about we take a break from all the news about Star Wars: The Force Awakens to talk about one of the Star Wars spin-off moves that is currently in development. /Film came across some information regarding the plot of the Star Wars standalone film that is being directed by Gareth Edwards and written by Gary Whitta. If you don't want to know anything about this, then I suggest you steer clear of the rest of this article.
Apparently, the 2016 Star Wars movie is going to tell a story about a group of people who will pull off the "ultimate heist in a galaxy far, far away." I'm a huge fan of heist movies, so a heist movie set in the Star Wars universe sounds awesome! Now, what does the heist entail? According to the report, the group is going to steal "one of the most important linchpins in Star Wars history — they are out to steal the plans for the first Death Star."
Whoa! The story is actually going to be set at the same time as A New Hope, but it will not be the Rebel Alliance trying to pull off the job. Instead, the story will center a group of ruthless bounty hunters who are hired by the Alliance for the job. "Think the Seven Samurai or Suicide Squad meets Ocean’s Eleven in the world of Star Wars."
I can already envision what this movie will look like, and I'm really freakin' excited! The site says to consider the news a rumor since Lucasfilm hasn't confirmed it, but they seem confident in their source.
The Death Star plans played a pivotal role in A New Hope, and they were used to pinpoint the weak spot that needed to be hit to destroy it. Here's a little information about the plans from Star Wars Wiki.
As the construction of the Death Star drew closer to completion, Mon Mothma and Bail Organa knew that Rebels needed to obtain a complete technical readout of the Death Star. If their engineers could pinpoint a weakness in the battlestation, then the Rebels might be able to destroy it. The Alliance set into motion the biggest anti-Imperial offensive it had ever attempted: a complex, coordinated operation to compile a complete set of plans for the Death Star and transmit it to the Tantive IV. Various missions were undertaken by the Rebel Alliance with this purpose, but while some of them succeeded, others simply confirmed the Death Star's existence, name and purpose, which were in fact already known to the Leader of the Alliance.
One of these missions could have easily involved a group of bounty hunters. There's no information on which bounty hunters will be included in the movie, but Boba Fett could easily be a part of the team if they wanted to include him. The thing about Bounty Hunters is they aren't loyal to any side, good or bad. They just go to where the money is at.
It's also revealed that the Millennium Falcon is involved somehow, but that Han Solo is not. That doesn't really make sense, Solo should definitely have his ship during this time, unless the bounty hunters steal it. But maybe there is some misinformation here. Solo did play apart in retrieving the Death Star plans in the extended Universe. Here's how he was involved:
For the raid on Vergesso facilities Captain Raymus Antilles secured the assistance of Han Solo's smuggling skills. Solo, originally extremely reluctant to involve himself in Rebel affairs, was forced to comply after Antilles made assisting him the condition for rescuing him from Imperial custody over the surface of Corellia.
Solo undertook a mission to infiltrate the Imperial shipping facilities in the Vergesso Asteroids, planting a tracking device and EMP emitter in a cargo container bound for an Imperial research station in Corulag. The EMP successfully disabled the station's defenses long enough for Rebel search teams to raid the station. The data they acquired "confirmed" the existence of the Death Star I and gave the Rebels an idea of the scale of its destructive capabilities, but failed to provide any technical information with which a weakness could be identified. Even Gial Ackbar, Tarkin's personal slave rescued during the raid, knew little about the plot.
Using funds stolen from the raid on Ylesia and other sources, the Rebellion planted and aided spies on the world of Ralltiir. One of their number, Basso, also "confirmed" the existence of a massive Imperial construction, code-named Death Star. This was later identified as a massive superlaser-wielding battlestation by the Empire's Lord Tion. Shortly before his death, Tion revealed that a convoy containing the Death Star plans was en route to Toprawa from Tarkin's headquarters on Eriadu.
You can read more about the Rebels attempts to acquire the Death Star plans here. Even though Lucasfilm said that the expanded universe would not be used in any of their films, the filmmakers are obviously being inspired by them.
The report also says that the main character in this spinoff movie would be introduced in The Force Awakens. Of course, he would be a much older version of the character. The site goes on to speculate that Max Von Sydow‘s character could be this character. "There’s a rumor he plays a character who introduces Daisy Ridley to Han Solo, which would be a link. He may even be a retired bounty hunter named Montross, which could place him in this story." That's all just speculation and rumor, though.
The idea of a Star Wars bounty hunter heist movie is awesome, and I hope this is all true because now I really want to see this movie get made!
