Star Wars Rogue One Concept Art Looks Like 'Halo': Band Of Space Soldiers On A Mission

Star Wars Rogue One Concept art - this is concept art from Star Wars The Old Republic

By Peter ScirettaMarch 12, 2015 6:31 pm EST

Thursday, Disney CEO Bob Iger made some pretty big Star Wars announcements during the Disney Shareholder Meeting, including a release date for Rian Johnson's Star Wars: Episode VIII as well as Felicity Jones casting confirmation and the title of the first Star Wars spin-off.

But that wasn't all, Bob Iger also showed the first piece of concept art for Star Wars: Rogue One, which may surprise you. I think most everyone assumed that with a title like "Rogue One," the movie would involve the first group of X-Wing pilots but the concept art shows something very different.

(please note: the images above and below are not the Star Wars Rogue One concept art, but images from various games like Star Wars The Old Republic)

The concept art hasn't leaked online due to the strict no-electronics policy of the event. What's more, all of these announcements were made for a room of shareholders and not fans, so it was near impossible to find anyone who had seen the concept art to actually describe what it showed. But like any real blogger, I harassed (I mean asked politely) and interrogated (I mean questioned) a few of the investors who attended the event and got some interesting answers.

[side rant] Am I the only one nervous that Disney is going to give the real Star Wars fans who are flying in from around the world for Celebration less announcements than they just gave a room of investors? Let's just hope they show fans something more than just the next Star Wars theatrical trailer which is set to be attached to Avengers: Age of Ultron a couple weeks later. [/side rant]

Star Wars Rogue One Concept Art Description

Here is what I have learned about the Star Wars Rogue One concept art shown at the event:

The concept art was a gritty "dark/gray image": "very dark and done in greens, so it evoked the idea that it was being done under the cloak of night."

The art showed 4-5 armored, soldier-like persons on the ground, "with two to three ships in the background."

Disney blogger/investor StitchKingdom says that the imagery "evoked concept art of a video game" and it "screamed Halo to me."

"Dozens of figures in fatigues appeared to be storming something with a strange helicopterish vehicle (open on the sides) in the background, releasing more troops."

Unfortunately neither of the sources we talked to knew enough about the Star Wars expanded universe to describe exactly who the characters may have been or what ships were pictured in the background.

There were tough-looking vehicles too.

The ships were fairly dark, and in the background.

They weren't obviously X-Wing Fighters, which our sources would have recognized.

They "seemed a bit bigger than X-Wings".

"More like a transport ship of sorts" but probably not as big as the Tantive IV (the transport ship we see Darth Vader board at the beginning of A New Hope).

The characters were all "generic" looking "wearing the same dark outfit." "I didn't see anything that would distinguish them as individuals."

When I asked LA Times reporter Daniel Miller if they looked more like Rebel Alliance fighters in orange jumpsuits or a band of bounty hunters, he replied: "Neither. They were masked but not whimsical looking like those bounty hunters (I realize whimsy & mercenaries don't go together)."

What does this tell us about the film compared to what we've heard already?

We had originally heard that the film would follow a group of bounty hunters who were hired to pull off a heist to steal the plans for the Death Star — think Seven Samurai or Suicide Squad meets Ocean's Eleven in the world of Star Wars.

The "secret" working title for the film is Los Alamos, which you could speculate the temporary name points to the Manhattan Project and therefore possibly Geonosis.

Others have reported that the film will be about Boba Fett's family (which may not conflict with our report).

And Latino-Review reported that the Star Wars spinoff won't be a Han Solo story or a Boba Fett story, but a single film that includes both fan-favorite characters.

Finally, a report claimed that Hasbro leaked the plans for the Star Wars spin-offs which included a "Red Five" film, but scheduled for 2020. The 2016 spin-off film was set to be a Boba Fett stand alone movie.

One thing is for sure, Disney is very calculated in what they release to the public, and when the information/content is shown. The fact that they showed a piece of Rogue One concept art should tell us something about the film itself. The title "Rogue One" led many to believe it's about the origins of the elite Rebel Alliance X-wing squad, so it's very interesting that the first publicly debuted piece of concept art does not feature the signature Rebel ship. Instead it focuses on a group of armored space soldiers. A band of space soldiers on a mission could further substantiate what we heard and reported exclusively in November 2014: that the film would be about a mission to steal the plans for the death star.

Thanks to Brad Abbott, Daniel Miller and StitchKingdom for the contributions to this piece.