Star Wars: Rogue One - 10 Simple Blunders That Would Ruin It

4. The Force Being Integral At All

The explicit pitch of Rogue One within the franchise is to provide a Star Wars story that doesn't hinge at all on the Force; it's a down-and-gritty tale about regular people, and to introduce magic would really undercut that. It wouldn't be as ruinous as Jyn just pulling out a lightsaber and mentally communicating with Yoda, but having some Force inclined character (say Donnie Yen's blind assassin) would really suck a lot out of the stakes of the film.

Yes, Vader and possibly the Emperor are going to appear, which would seem to necessitate some grand show of Force, but it needn't. For most of Star Wars Vader was a basic heavy, only using the ancient religion in the Imperial board meeting and his fight with Obi-Wan. Heck, throughout the trilogy a lot of his Force intuition (knowing the Rebels are on Hoth) is almost dismissed by officers. I'd have nothing against an action scene where Vader reminds the audience how powerful he is (don't forget his presence here will be used as major atonement for the prequels), but it should be more of an action beat than an essential part of the Death Star scheme.

We're in an era where someone who's flown from one side of the galaxy to the other, and seen a lot of strange stuff, has still never seen anything to make them believe that there's one all-powerful Force controlling everything. Wouldn't it then be strange for it to actually be a really common thing?

And on that note...