Rogue One: 8 Reasons To Be Excited Even If You Aren't A Star Wars Fan

7. An All-New Cast

Star Wars Rogue One Cast
Lucasfilm

The success of Rogue One is largely resting on the shoulders of its brand-new cast, and if you aren't a fan of Star Wars, this can only be a good thing. By bringing some fresh faces on-board and weaving its story around them, it'll be much easier for everybody to have fun with the movie rather than being left in the dark because they don't care about (or aren't familiar with) a particular pre-existing character.

For example, to fully enjoy The Force Awakens, audiences needed to be aware of Luke, and why the Rebels are so desperate to find him. The prequels were similar here, too; they're essentially a glorified backstory for Vader in episodes four through six, so it's best to have seen those first.

Rogue One has no such problem; it's building these people from the ground-up, which means the audience is with them from the ground-up, and Star Wars newbies can jump right in without missing out on a valuable slice of backstory, an in-joke or a character motivation.

Not only is the cast diverse, with a female lead, prominent roles for Chinese stars and space for a handful of strong character-actors, but everyone has proven they have talent. When you combine this with the fact that they're playing completely original parts, it'll be much easier for rookies to enjoy Rogue One without having to brush up on their Star Wars characters first.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!