In this day and age of cinema, it's almost standard practice to assume that any successful film will be granted a sequel.

Rogue One - the first of three planned Star Wars prequels - will be an exception to that rule; Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has assured that however successful the film will be, the prequel will not be getting a follow-up.

In an interview with Empire, Kennedy and visual effects artist John Knoll stated that the prequel was always designed as a standalone film and this won't change despite its probable worldwide success.

Rogue One - A Star Wars Story TV Spot

Upon retrospect, this is an understandable decision - in many respects, the film already has a sequel in A New Hope, the film that kicked off the Star Wars behemoth back in 1977.

Every lightsaber in Star Wars history (films) Show all 12 1 /12 Every lightsaber in Star Wars history (films) Every lightsaber in Star Wars history (films) General Grievous The general played a big part in the Clone Wars, collecting dead Jedi's lightsaber's along the way and using them to do a crazy spin-attack. Unfortunately, they all get cut off by Obi-Wan just a little too quickly. Every lightsaber in Star Wars history (films) Qui-Gon Jinn Obi-Wan's master really didn't have too much time on screen, but his battles with Darth Maul will go down as some of the best in Star Wars history. Every lightsaber in Star Wars history (films) The Emperor It was a little weird seeing The Emperor, at this stage Palpatine, getting out a lightsaber and battling Jedi. Much better when just using Force lightning! Every lightsaber in Star Wars history (films) Anakin Skywalker/Luke Skywalker/Finn Now, this one really does have some history, travelling down the generations of Skywalkers, and briefly using by Finn in The Force Awakens. Of course, **Spoiler** someone else also uses the saber after it calls to them, could they be a Skywalker to? Every lightsaber in Star Wars history (films) Darth Vader The first red-lightsaber we ever saw on screen: the definition of evil and an iconic weapon. Every lightsaber in Star Wars history (films) Yoda Again, a little odd seeing a character from the Original Trilogy using a saber, especially when he was jumping around after putting down his walking cane. Ah well, doesn't stop Yoda being a brilliant mentor to Luke. Every lightsaber in Star Wars history (films) Mace Windu Samuel L. Jackson managed to someone get George Lucas to give him a purple lightsaber, just to stand out from the rest of the crowd. That's one bad*ss motherlightsaber. Every lightsaber in Star Wars history (films) Obi-Wan Sure, Obi-Wan managed to lose his saber on countless occasions throughout the prequels, but at least he had it in A New Hope when going against Vader. Because that went well... Every lightsaber in Star Wars history (films) Darth Maul Maul's double ended lightsaber may have been the best thing about Phantom Menace. Scratch that, he was the best thing about that film! The last battle between Maul, Jinn and Obi-Wan was phenomenal, just a shame Maul didn't last until the next film (of course, he came back in The Clone Wars TV show, but that will take a little too long to explain here) Every lightsaber in Star Wars history (films) Kylo Ren At first, the cross lightsaber was mocked by the Internet for being impractical. Yet, when seen in the movie, it's ferocious, spitting out light due to be unstable, much like it's master. Every lightsaber in Star Wars history (films) Count Dooku Now, Dooku's character wasn't in the films for very long, feeling hugely underutilised, especially considering it was the great Christopher Lee, who took on the role as he was a trained fencer. It was still hugely impressive for an 80-year-old to be the best sword fighter in the galaxy. Every lightsaber in Star Wars history (films) Luke Skywalker Luke's second saber, after the one he inherited from his father, was originally going to be blue as well. Yet, due to not standing out against the Tatooine landscape, it was changed to green - which is why in early posters his saber is blue.

What's most notable is how rare this notion will be going into the cinema - when you sit down to watch Rogue One, you can prepare to be marveled at a film that, as director Gareth Edwards put it, "very definitely [has] a beginning, middle and end."

A brand new TV spot for the film has hinted at the return of yet another villainous character alongside Darth Vader who can be seen in the most recent full trailer which fans suspect may give away the film's biggest secret.