Star Wars Rogue One: 10 Reasons It's Awesome
6. Returning Legacy Characters
Rogue One was always going to have a high abundance of fan service elements, what with Darth Vader, Moff Tarkin and other fanboy-friendly characters making re-appearances from earlier installments, and as fun as this is, there are two returning legacy characters in particular who are actually treated as real human beings rather than easy fan-bait.
Firstly, there's Mon Mothma, the forthright Rebel Alliance officer who is once again played by Genevieve O'Reilly (who played her previously in Revenge of the Sith) and gets a few memorable scenes, and Jimmy Smits as Princess Leia's adoptive father Bail Organa.
The two share one especially entertaining scene which nods at the exterior Star Wars universe without getting too on-the-nose with it. You could easily watch these two with only casual knowledge of the Star Wars universe and they would fit into the rest of the movie just fine, whereas Vader's presence, though brilliant, feels more blatantly tacked-on.
On the whole these scenes help flesh out the world, and while the entire movie is undeniably an exercise in fan exploitation, at least it makes good on that rather than coyly dancing around it with the pretense of being a totally original production.