With the release of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" in 2015, Disney kicked off a new era of the massively popular franchise -- one that will see a new "Star Wars" film released every year for the foreseeable future. Right now, those films feature either characters from the original trilogies of Star Wars films or they're set within the span of time covered by those six movies -- or, in the case of "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," both.

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That may not always be the case, though. In an interview with Coming Soon, Gary Whitta (one of the screenwriters behind "Rogue One") revealed that the goal for Lucasfilm may be to one day produce a Star Wars film that features totally original characters and concepts -- and "Rogue One" represents the first step on that journey.

"I think you’ve already seen us get 90% of the way there with 'Rogue One.' Yes you see Leia, yes you see the Death Star and Vader, because those are elements of that story and they belong there," said Whitta. "You can’t tell that story without those characters, but for the most part, 90% of that story is completely new characters, completely new planets and places you’ve never seen before. It’s a Star Wars movie with no Jedi! You don’t see a lightsaber once until Vader pops it out at the end. It doesn’t have any spirituality or mysticism... a little bit through Donnie [Yen]’s character, but it’s very different DNA to the Star Wars films that have come before it. I really like the fact that we tried to do something different.

"The next spin-off is ‘Han Solo,’ that’s another familiar character," continued Whitta. "One of the thing things we really want to do at Lucasfilm is create a universe and not keep relying on old legacy characters. We’ve got Rey and Finn and Kylo Ren, they’ve already introduced a new generation of characters. Whatever kind of Star Wars films they’re making 10 or 20 years from now, I don’t think they’re going to be relying on the same legacy story elements as we have in the past."

Of course this shouldn't be taken as the official Lucasfilm mission statement, as Whitta admits that he's "speaking purely as a fan" and "obviously [has] no idea what their plans are for the franchise. I did my small piece of it, but it makes sense to me that you don’t want to keep telling the same story over and over again. You want to tell new stories."

The most recent Star Wars film, "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," arrives on Digital HD and Disney Movies Anywhere on March 24. The film will be available for purchase on Blu-ray, DVD and On Demand on April 4.