With the new Rogue One trailer dropping Thursday night, Entertainment Weekly has been posting a week of new stories about the upcoming stand-alone Star Wars film. Here’s part five.

It was a meeting at dawn in hushed restaurant when Felicity Jones found herself recruited for a covert mission.

Director Gareth Edwards (previously best known for Godzilla) had recently signed on to make Rogue One, the first Star Wars stand-alone film about the Rebel soldiers who steal the original Death Star blueprints, and he was considering her as the big sister to lead this band of brothers.

“We were both working at the time and we met at something like 5:30 a.m. in a hotel restaurant,” Jones recalls. “Most of the meeting was conducted in whispers as he explained the story and the character. My first introduction was definitely one shrouded in secrecy and being very careful no one overheard what we were talking about.”

With the movie opening Dec. 16, she’s finally at the stage when she can talk about it. But The Theory of Everything Oscar-nominee has a lot more to discuss, too. She’s in three other movies opening this year: the action-thriller Collide (Aug. 19), the bittersweet supernatural tale A Monster Calls (Oct. 21), and the third Da Vinci Code film Inferno (Oct. 28.)

With all the hysteria over Episode VIII, you may have forgotten that there is actually another Star Wars film coming this year. We’re here to give you the lowdown on just what to expect from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, with dates, spoilers (sorry) and quotes a-plenty.

Where does Rogue One come in relation to the Star Wars canon?
Rogue One is the first Star Wars feature film to take place outside the original canon created by George Lucas, and tells the story of a group of Rebel fighters attempting to steal the plans for the iconic Death Star. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film “takes place just before A New Hope and leads up to the 10 minutes before that classic film begins.”

Producer Kathleen Kennedy also made it clear that Rogue One is meant to be kept separate from the main canon, saying “There is no attempt being made to carry characters (from the stand-alone films) in and out of the saga episodes.”

Who’s directing Rogue One?
Star Wars fans can sleep safe in the knowledge that the special effects are in good hands, with Gareth Edwards, director of the recent Godzilla movie and creator of independent classic Monsters taking the helm for Rogue One. Edwards’ background is largely in digital effects, but he has received much praise for his directorial exploits, and has proved already that he can handle a large franchise with the impressive Godzilla.

Speaking to Flicks And The City in 2005, Edwards warned fans to “expect the unexpected, because it’s not gonna be like the saga movie.” More recently, however, it was announced that Disney had ordered weeks of reshoots on the film, sparking rumours that Lucasfilm were unhappy with the direction that Edwards had taken the franchise.

Source: NME