OREANDA-NEWS  When it hits theaters this December, Rogue One will have the distinction of being the first Star Wars movie to explore the period in between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.

If you haven't been following the TV series Star Wars: Rebels or books like Star Wars: A New Dawn and Star Wars: Tarkin, you may not know much about this pivotal piece of the Star Wars timeline.

To help get you primed for the new movie, we're breaking down everything you need to know about the setting of Rogue One and how Emperor Palpatine rewrote history to make the galaxy forget all about the Jedi.

Rogue One takes place shortly before the events of A New Hope. At that point, Palpatine's Empire has existed for about 19 years. That might not seem like a lot of time in which to establish an iron-clad grip over thousands of star systems, but if we learned anything about Palpatine in the Prequel Trilogy, it's that he's very good at planning ahead. Though he allows the Galactic Senate to maintain its existence, they're little more than a token body of powerless senators.