If Disney and Lucasfilm stoked the embers of excitement with yesterday’s all-too-brief snippet, then the first trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story ought to be enough to have you revelling in a wave of nostalgia.
Arriving by way of Good Morning America, this is more of a teaser trailer than anything else, shedding just enough light on Gareth Edwards’ galactic heist to send the Internet into meltdown.
From towering AT-ATs shooting up a tropical beach to Felicity Jones’ defiant Rebel fighter, there’s plenty to get excited about within today’s first sizzle reel, which irrefutably proves that Edwards and Co. are cooking up something truly different to what we’ve seen before.
If J.J. Abrams’ The Force Awakens expanded Disney’s prized universe in a new direction, then Edwards’ Rogue One circles back to where it all began – or at least, before the events of A New Hope. With the remnants of Anakin Skywalker all but gone – left sizzling on the piping hot plains of Mustafar – and the galaxy living in fear of the mercurial Darth Vader and his growing Empire, a crack team of Rebel fighters stage a daring mission to steal plans for the Death Star.
Eagle-eyed Star Wars fans will know that said heist is referenced during the opening crawl to A New Hope, though Edwards will be fleshing out the adjacent story into a bona fide feature – the first of Disney’s planned Anthology films – come December.
On board for that galactic escapade are Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Forest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk and Riz Ahmed.
But never tell them the odds – Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has been set for release on December 16.
