Disclaimer: This post contains spoilers for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was an experiment from Disney and Lucasfilm that could have fallen flat. In the past, the franchise had expanded its universe through the use of other media like comics and books. However, never have the Star Wars films dared to venture outside the Skywalker storyline in the film form. It was a bit of a gamble, but one that had the potential to pay off.

However, while Rogue One was the first film not to follow the main throughline set up in the past several decades, it still had strong ties to that world. Taking place just prior to the events in A New Hope, it still very much had a lot of the same DNA, the same main reference points, and given its plot, the same overall connections. Ironically enough, as a spinoff film, there was the danger that the film would rely too much on its connections to the main saga.

RELATED: TWO MORE ALTERNATE ENDINGS THAT DIDN’T MAKE IT INTO ROGUE ONE

This was my greatest concern going in. However, somewhere along the way during the film’s runtime, the desire I had for the film to shift away from those connections dwindled. Interestingly enough, in a film that was more separated from any other, it did a better job at building the world in which everything was set. This enrichment made me want it to connect to the trilogy all the more. I was drawn to the characters and plot of this particular film, yes, but as the plot progressed, I still found myself hoping for even stronger connections to the original trilogy. They made me yearn for the ties to grow stronger.

And it did not disappoint. The end of the film saw Darth Vader horribly mangle a group of Rebels in one of their ships as they tried to pass the Death Star plans onto Princess Leia. I know I wasn’t alone in wanting to go home right away and fire up A New Hope on my Blu-ray player. But there is something woefully unsatisying about doing so. There’s still that extra connection that we were missing. Between the closing credits of Rogue One and the opening crawl of A New Hope, a real momentum of storytelling is lost. 

Well, one fan understood our pain, and took to their own personal editing bay to throw together an edit that connected these two films. While not absolutely perfect in the eyes of this writer, the video succeeds in scratching an itch for continuity that’s always been important to Star Wars fans.

What do you think of the video? Let us know your thoughts down below!

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SOURCE: Barre Fong (via Vimeo)