Star Wars: Rogue One Co-Writer Addresses That Callsign Confusion

Upon the announcement of the Star Wars spin-off film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, some fans assumed that the movie would be somewhat connected to The Empire Strikes Back, considering that the title includes the heroic callsign of a snowspeeder pilot on Hoth. This callsign was one of the conflicting details in the film, but co-writer Gary Whitta clears up the confusion.

In the film, a group of Rebels were planning to sabotage the Galactic Empire. In order to avoid their real identities getting compromised, they went with the "Rogue One" callsign. While in Empire Strikes Back, the snowspeeders were known as the Rogue Squadron. Assuming that the pilot's callsign would be Rogue One, the film used the callsign Rogue Leader.

Taking to Twitter, Whitta admitted that he prefers to stick by his non-canonized idea of not having a Rogue One callsign in Empire Strikes Back. "Because the Rebellion retired it after the Battle of Scarif out of respect for those who died on that mission," he explained. Hence, instead of Rogue One, it goes straight from Rogue Leader to Rogue Two. You can check out his tweet below.

Rebels honoring the sacrifices of those from Rogue One could somehow be associated with Star Wars #52 where Luke Skywalker and the other Rebels were forced to name themselves Rogue Squadron after being under attack.

On another note, Whitta confirmed that he won't be involved in the Rogue One spin-off series. However, co-writer Tony Gilroy will be writing and directing. Diego Luna and Alan Tudyk will also return as Cassian Andor and Alan Tudyk, respectively.

The Rogue One prequel series is yet to have a release date.

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