With a generally positive reaction and a box-office gross passing $2 billion worldwide shortly, it’s safe to say that J.J. Abrams successfully kicked off our return to the world of Star Wars with The Force Awakens, now available to watch on repeat. This year, we’ll get the first spin-off in the franchise with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which is a prequel depicting a group of resistance fighters who set out to steal plans for the Empire’s Death Star.
Bringing a sense of vision and directorial control all but absent in the current state of blockbuster filmmaking (save for last summer’s Fury Road), Gareth Edwards‘ Godzilla was an incredibly staged spectacle. With his follow-up, we sincerely hope he brings the same level of detail, even if we’re still curious how this relatively narrow-minded prequel story will deliver.
With a wonderfully varied cast (including Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso, Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Forest Whitaker, and Mads Mikkelsen) we’re curious to see what the Star Wars franchise’s best director (at least until Rian Johnson) can muster up.
The first trailer for the film has now landed and can be seen below, along with the teaser poster:
Lucasfilm’s Rogue One, which takes place before the events of Star Wars: A New Hope, tells the story of unlikely heroes who have united to steal plans to the dreaded Death Star. The cast includes Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, Riz Ahmed, and Forest Whitaker. “Rogue One” is directed by Gareth Edwards
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story opens on December 16th, 2016.