On April 7, the world got its first look at Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the first of three anthology films that won’t be part of the ongoing canon that continued last year with The Force Awakens, but will feature familiar subject matter for those that have adventured in a galaxy far, far away over the years.
Here’s the trailer:
The premise of this film is as Mon Mothma (Geneveive O’Reilly) states: there is a major weapons test about to take place and the Rebel Alliance wants to know what it is and how to destroy it.
As anyone that has seen the original Star Wars (a.k.a. Episode IV, a.k.a. A New Hope) knows, the weapon is the Death Star and the Alliance figures out how to destroy it thanks to a little intergalactic thievery of space blueprints. Long just one of those “this is what happened” stories that existed in the Star Wars Universe, Rogue One will finally bring the story to life on the big screen.
The Force Awakens was an excellent new addition to the canon and a modern throwback to A New Hope, but there is something about the first trailer for Rogue One that harkens back to childhood and the original trilogy. With familiar locations like the bridge of the Death Star and the Rebel base on Yavin 4, plus scenes with AT-ATs and old school Rebel troops in white dome helmets, there is something tantalizingly nostalgic about this upcoming entry into the Star Wars Cinematic Universe.
And it can’t get here soon enough.
Director Gareth Edwards (Godzilla) has said this is a war movie, plain and simple, so there won’t be Jedi coming to save the day or good guys using The Force to get out of any sticky situations. We also know – from the trailer and the information that has already been released about the plot – that the film involves a mission to learn more about the construction and functionality of The Death Star that will include Jyn Erso, Felicity Jones’ female protagonist that we meet at the outset of the trailer.
If the idea of a snatch-and-grab war movie set in the Star Wars Universe isn’t enough to get you excited, the opening 25 seconds of the trailer, right up to the point where the Lucasfilm logo appears, has to give you chills.
Erso is walked into the Rebel base in cuffs, her rap sheet read in a voiceover before Mon Mothma adds a couple sympathy notes to her backstory. Then Jyn drops a gem.
“This is a rebellion, isn’t it?” she asks, as the trailer shows her whoopin’ on some Stormtroopers and blowing stuff up with a blaster. “I rebel.”
Is it December 16th yet?
