Rogue One heading back to theaters ahead of Andor on Disney Plus

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will be rereleased in 150 IMAX theaters across the U.S. and Canada for one week from Aug. 26, in anticipation of the new spinoff series, Andor.

The 2016 Star Wars prequel, which dramatizes the theft of the plans for the Death Star by a group of Rebel spies, will be screened alongside an exclusive preview of footage from Andor ahead of that show’s debut on Disney Plus on Sept. 21. Rogue One has also been digitally remastered by IMAX using its own remastering technology for this special presentation.

The film and the new series are closely linked. Andor takes place five years before the events of Rogue One and follows Diego Luna’s character from the movie, Cassian Andor, as the show charts the early days of the rebellion against the Empire.

Andor’s creator and showrunner is espionage specialist Tony Gilroy, the screenwriter of the Bourne films and writer-director of Michael Clayton. Gilroy was hired by Disney to rework aspects of Rogue One’s script and direct reshoots after the credited director, Gareth Edwards, left the production.

After the productions of both Rogue One and 2018’s Solo ran into trouble, Disney and Lucasfilm abandoned the Star Wars Story series of spinoff films, repurposing a proposed Obi-Wan Kenobi movie as a Disney Plus series. But Rogue One’s reputation has grown since its release, and it’s now regarded as perhaps the best film of the modern Star Wars era.

It should be well worth seeing again on the big screen — especially for the expansive, moody cinematography by Greig Fraser (Dune, The Batman). Tickets are on sale now.