Gareth Edwards's Star Wars anthology film Rogue One is about to go in front of cameras, making it the first spinoff outing in the new look franchise.

So, as Disney and Lucasfilm prepare to conjure up another adventure in a galaxy far, far away, we present everything you need to know about the upcoming Star Wars film.

Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One will open in cinemas on December 16, 2016.

The man behind the camera is Hollywood hot property

Gareth Edwards made his name with the ultra-low budget Monsters in 2010 before directing last year's Godzilla, and now he's been tasked with launching the first Star Wars spinoff flick.

It's been a sharp career trajectory, but one that Edwards seems to be taking in his stride. He's previously cited George Lucas as one of his favourite filmmakers and his comments on the official press release announcing his hiring showed his geek cred.

"Ever since I saw Star Wars I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life - join the Rebel Alliance! I could not be more excited and honoured to go on this mission with Lucasfilm."

Edwards is the second Brit to take the helm of a Star Wars movie, following in the footsteps of Return of the Jedi's Richard Marquand.

Rogue One will shoot in the UK

VFX firm ILM set up shop in London late last year with the promise of working on six new Star Wars films over the course of the next decade. A UK base for ILM indicates that Star Wars will be a strong presence in the British film industry for some time.

JJ Abrams's The Force Awakens has already completed filming, using the iconic Pinewood Studios as the focal point for a global shoot that went to Abu Dhabi, Iceland, Scotland and Ireland.

Rogue One (as well as Rian Johnson's Episode VIII) will be back at Pinewood, which played home to George Lucas's original Star Wars trilogy back in the '70s and '80s.

The storyline is set before the events of A New Hope

The idea for Rogue One originally came from ILM's Oscar-winning VFX supervisor John Knoll, who pitched it to Lucasfilm and Disney who fell in love with the idea.

Gary Whitta and Chris Weitz have crafted the script, which centres on a crack team of Rebel pilots who must execute a daring heist to steal the plans for the Death Star. All this will take place in the years before Star Wars: A New Hope, with the film's mission vital to the climactic events of the 1977 film.

Little else is know about the story, but Edwards did unveil a tantalising teaser at this year's Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim: an X-wing craft crossing a jungle landscape as the Death Star ominously creeps into view.

Edwards has said of the film: "This is a real place that we're really in...The thing that interests me about it, is Star Wars was basically very black and white. Our movie is grey."

Intriguingly, Rogue One is the first live action spinoff since TV film Ewoks: The Battle for Endor debuted in 1985. We're expecting this to represent an uptick in quality!

An impressive cast is assembling

Oscar-nominated The Theory of Everything star Felicity Jones will lead the cast of the film, playing a rebel fighter who's part of the team tasked with retrieving the Death Star plans. Her role was hotly-contested, with Tatiana Maslany, Rooney Mara and Kate Mara all in the running for the part.

Elsewhere, Ben Mendelsohn, Diego Luna and Riz Ahmed are also among the confirmed cast with Hunger Games star Sam Claflin rumoured (but still not confirmed) for the film. Early rumours have said that the cast will be a large ensemble in the mould of The Dirty Dozen or Saving Private Ryan.

This is the first Star Wars movie without John Williams

John Williams's iconic music has provided the soundtrack to all six previous live-action Star Wars feature films, but Rogue One will be the first to break with that tradition.

Alexandre Desplat, the French composer behind everything from Grand Budapest Hotel to The Imitation Game and Argo, will take on the daunting task of creating a new sound for Star Wars. Could Williams's classic theme be returning as part of the new score? We're still waiting to find out!