Just as promised yesterday, the official teaser trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has hit the internet and it’s fantastic.
There’s something exhilarating about a Star Wars movie that’s not about destiny and the Skywalkers – after all, this universe is large and there are far more people involved in these galactic wars than just the Skywalkers, Solos, and Kenobis.
And as much as I love the Jedi and the Force, I’ve always been more of a sucker for those scrappy Rebels, so this trailer was instantly great for me.
There are familiar faces (Mon Mothma!) and sights (the Death Star!), and as predictable as this movie might seem (we know the Death Star exists and works in A New Hope), this trailer succeeds in still feeling refreshing and new.
The film is led by Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), a young girl who’s been on her own since the age of 15 and is described by Mothma as “aggressive, reckless, and undisciplined.”
Erso’s response, done as a voiceover to scenes of her brutally taking out some Stormtroopers: “This is a rebellion, isn’t it? I rebel.”
YEAH, GIRL.
Not much else is known about her, except that she’s chosen to lead this mission to discover information about the Death Star. This, of course, has already led to plenty of theories: she’s Rey’s mom, her father is the Imperial officer in the all-white garb (played by Ben Mendelsohn), and/or that she’s “seeking redemption for the role her family played in designing the Death Star.”
Whatever the case may be (one of the most chilling shots in the trailer is the last one, where we see Erso in a black Imperial uniform, as Forest Whitaker’s character asks her: “What will you do if they break you?”), this trailer has grabbed my attention, with its overlay of an alarm sound, and isn’t letting go.
The cast is rounded out by greats like Forest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen, Donnie Yen (seen using a quarterstaff at 1:14), Diego Luna (the new Poe Dameron? Please?), and Genevieve O’Reilly, so it’s nice to see Lucasfilm continuing to make good on their promise for more diversity.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is directed by Gareth Edwards and set to arrive in theaters on December 16, 2016.
What do you think of the trailer? Are you excited for this first stand-alone film? Let us know what you think!
