Rogue One A Star Wars Story is a 2016 American epic space opera film directed by Gareth Edwards The screenplay was written by Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy inspired by a story idea from John Knoll and developed by Gary Whitta The film was produced by Lucasfilm and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures It is the first installment of the Star Wars anthology series and an immediate prequel to Star Wars 1977 a The main cast consists of Felicity Jones Diego Luna Ben Mendelsohn Donnie Yen Mads Mikkelsen Alan Tudyk Riz Ahmed Jiang Wen and Forest Whitaker Set a week before the events of Star Wars A New Hope the plot follows a group of rebels who band together to steal plans of the Death Star the ultimate weapon of the Galactic Empire It details the Rebel A l l i a n c e 's first effective