Rouge One: A Star Wars Story is on its way to the Star Wars Cinematic Universe and viewers couldn’t be more excited. Since the soon-to-be-titled eighth episode has been pushed back seven months due to character rewrites, viewers will be glad to get their annual Star Wars fix. While they wait for the many questions to be answered by the next installment in the Star Wars Trilogy, Lucasfilm and Disney are blasting from the past in the first of many planned spin-offs of the original trilogy.

This film will be released on December 16, 2016 in the United Kingdom and the United States, and December 14th in Italy, France and the Netherlands. Although the latest news said that the film was experiencing some issues and thus had to reshoot certain scenes, it has been confirmed that these release dates will not be affected.

Rogue One was announced at a Disney D23 Expo, with a glimpse at the cast. The lead, Jyn Erso, will be played by Oscar-nominated actress Felicity Jones from The Theory of Everything. The trailer was released a few months ago and can be viewed here.

This is the first Star Wars heist style movie, with the lead heroine recruited into a team in order to steal plans for the Death Star. Her team includes Captain Cassian Andor (Diego Luna from Elysium), “freelance assassin” Baze (Jiang Wen from Let the Bullets Fly), Imperial pilot and secret rebel Bohi (Riz Ahmed from Nightcrawler), “spiritual warrior” Chirrut (Donnie Yen) aliens Pao and Bistan, whose actors have not been released yet. In addition to the human team members, a new droid will be introduced, an Imperial Enforcer Droid turned rebel, K-2SO (Alan Tudyk from Firefly).

Another member of  the cast is star Jimmy Smits as Princess Leia’s adopted father, Senator Bail Organa. Against all guesses, Hannibal’s Mads Mikkelsen won’t play a villain but will instead play the lead Jyn Erso’s absent father: Galen Erso, a brilliant scientist with a knack for doomsday devices. Also returning is Genevieve O’Reilly, reprising her role as Mon Mothma, a leader of the Galactic Senate and a loyalist force.

“We actually see quite a bit of her,” Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said to EW. “The rebel alliance is in a disarray. Pretty panicked. Up against it. And she is trying the best she can to provide the leadership,” said Kennedy. 

The plot of this stand-alone film is set in a point between episodes III and IV- “Revenge of the Sith” and “A New Hope”. Fans of the original series will, however, be disappointed about one thing: composer John Williams’ music will not be used in the film, the first Star Wars title to break from that tradition. Originally, French composer Alexandre Desplat was brought on board to compose the score, but it was announced in September that the film would not fit into his schedule. He will be replaced by Michael Giacchino, who has written for Up, the Star Trek reboot, and Doctor Strange.

However, one question remains: will the iconic score that everyone knows and loves be back as part of the new score? Viewers are excited to find out.