'Rogue One' spoilers: Diego Luna's Cassian Andor sheds new light on the Rebellion's battle against the Empire

Oftentimes, the "Star Wars" universe is divided between the dark and the light side with the whole lore always trying to find the balance between the two; but "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" sits perfectly in the gray zone as it gives viewers a new lens to both the Rebellion and the Empire.

The first standalone film as part of the contemporary master plan of Disney and Lucasfilm Ltd. "Rogue One" follows a group of a ragtag team led by Jyn (Felicity Jones) in their mission to recover the Death Star plans. But weapon scientist Galen's (Mad Mikkelsen) will be needing a lot of help starting with Rebellion veteran Cassian Andor (Diego Luna).

Spoilers for the film, proceed with caution.

It has already been established that there are no Jedis in "Rogue One," that is if former ones like Darth Vader who was originally padawan Anakin Skywalker, as well as the passing reference to another that will surely catch the attention of lore hardcores do not count. Instead, the John Knoll story focuses on normal people and how their contributions helped the big payoff in destroying the superweapon in "Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope."

Grounded fighters are forced to quietly poke their way against the Empire's massive scope. If anything, "Rogue One" was able to successfully capture the desperation of the Alliance to the point that they are not squeaky clean in terms of their actions. And Luna's Andor was able to perfectly epitomize the feeling of the rebellion. In a couple of sequences in the film, he continues to go back and forth with respecting orders as well as moving forward with his gut feeling. This makes it an interesting dynamic with Jyn who is so far removed and was reluctant to answer to anyone until she realized what needs to be done.

"It's interesting because there are so many differences between these two characters," The Mexican actor told MTV referring to the pivotal partnership between Cassian and Jyn. "Like, if you ask Cassian who he wouldn't like to go on a mission with, he probably would have described Jyn. And probably the other way around."

However, with no other choice but to band together, against all odds, the two develops a great camaraderie which in turn helped Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) eventually got a hold of the plans to the first Death Star.

"Cassian sees a lot of himself in Jyn. That hurts — the mirror hurts. When you get used to that, it's the opposite, I guess. The connections can be very strong," Luna added.

In hindsight, Jyn and Cassian as well as the rest of crew made up of spiritual leader Chirrut (Donnie Yen), his protector, Baze (Jiang Wen), former Imperial pilot Bodhi (Riz Ahmed) and reprogrammed Imperial droid K2SO (mo-cap performance by Alan Tudyk) have been heroes long before Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) emerged in the scene.

Critics' initial reviews cite a perfect tie-up job that "Rogue One" did to the whole franchise. It honors the prequels at the same time excites fans on what they know will come in the original trilogies. It also offers an iconic space battle sequence, something that has been lacking in J.J. Abrams's "Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens" from last year.

"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" will blast through North American cinemas by the end of the week, on Dec. 16.