By Phil de Semlyen | Posted 23 Aug 2016

Rogue One… It has a undeniably badass ring to it, but what exactly does it mean? It’s a question that even its director, Gareth Edwards, had been puzzling over during the production process until, zing! A eureka moment came at Star Wars Celebration last month.

"I'd been thinking about it,” he reflects in the new issue of Empire. “What does it mean? 'Rogue One’ is a military call sign to some extent,” he adds, referring to Red Squadron during the Battle of Yavin, "but this is the first film that's gone off-piste and is not part of the saga – or the Anakin story – so it’s the 'rogue' one, you know?”

There’s potentially another meaning to it too, relating to Felicity Jones’ interplanetary guerrilla Jyn Erso. She also has a rogue streak; a touch of the Han Solos in her drive to do what’s right, regardless of how much shit she has to blow up en route. “It's kind of describing her as well in a similar way,” says Edwards. “It has [all] these split, multiple meanings that made it feel like the right choice."

Does the title also, perhaps, apply to Edwards himself? “I don’t know…” he demurs, “I never see myself that way. But, er… that’d be cool! We tried to do things different, for sure.”

For much more from Edwards and unparalleled access to his crew, pick up the Rogue One issue of Empire from Thursday August 25, available in all good and Death Star newsagents. Subscribers will already be receiving theirs – one of many reasons why it's worth subscribing to Empire. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, meanwhile, blasts into cinemas from December 16.