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The new trailer for ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ just dropped, and our nerves are still tingling. In case you’ve been hunting womp rats in the Jundland Wastes for the past year, you’ll know that ‘Rogue One’ is the first ‘Star Wars’ spinoff to hit our screens since those ropey Ewok flicks back in the ’80s. A standalone story set between episodes III and IV, it tells the tale of how a valiant band of Rebel soldiers managed to get their hands on the blueprints for the Empire’s newest weapon, the Death Star. Felicity Jones plays the tearaway leader of the strike force, with Riz Ahmed, Forest Whitaker and Diego Luna as backup.
So what can we take from this new trailer? First off, this could well be the most visually stunning 'Star Wars' movie ever: from epic desert-scapes and tropical paradise planets to the shimmering steel of the Death Star itself, everything here looks not just epically beautiful but absolutely real, with barely a hint of the CG-sheen that ruined the prequels. Secondly, we've got a good handle on the plot now: Mads Mikkelsen's character Galen Erso is definitely the weapon's designer, which explains why his daughter Jyn (Jones) is chosen to lead the infiltration team.
But perhaps most excitingly, this is the first proper look we've had at some of the film's epic battles: not just the gritty AT-AT dust-up on the aforementioned palm-fringed paradise planet, but just the briefest glimpse of a classic 'Star Wars'-style outer-space dogfight. Everything about the film looks simply huge, and we absolutely cannot wait to get stuck in.
‘Star Wars: Rogue One’ is out on Dec 16. Keep an eye on Time Out Film for all the big film news and reviews.