Joss Whedon spoke to Variety at the premiere of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and voiced his support for the idea of standalone Star Wars movies.
Instead of constantly building to enormous tent pole events, the Star Wars series has the opportunity to branch out into new directions and explore the minutiae of the universe.
This movie may focus on the mission to steal the Death Star plans, but the next standalone could go into an entirely different corner of the galaxy far, far away.
He seems particularly interested in the idea of a film series producing movies that don’t necessarily have to adhere to any sort of overarching narrative.