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The latest trailer for 'Rogue One’ landed on our dusty backwater planet this morning. In case you’ve been living as a hermit in the Jundland wastes for the past couple of years, you’ll know that ‘Rogue One’ is the first in a new series of standalone spinoff movies. Set just before the first ‘Star Wars’, it follows a crack squad of Rebel agents as they set out on a mission to steal the plans to the Empire’s terrifying new weapon, the Death Star. Here are five things that made us squeak a little bit while watching the trailer.
The Jedi are going to be front and centre
The first shot in the trailer shows a sprawling city built around the base of a Jedi temple. This is Jedha, presumably one of the last bastions of the old religion in these dark times. We also meet blind warrior Chirrut Îmwe (Donnie Yen), whose way with a stormtrooper-bashing stick marks him out as a definite Jedi Knight.
Felicity Jones and Diego Luna are definitely a double-act
The last trailer made it look like Felicity Jones’s troublemaking Jyn Erso was going to be leading this ragtag band of soldiers solo. But here we see for the first time her knockabout relationship with Rebel insider Cassian Andor, played by Mexican actor Diego Luna, who seems to be in charge of recruiting Erso’s team. Expect old-school Han ’n’ Leia bants.
Droid sidekick K-2SO has more than a touch of the C-3POs
‘Never tell me the odds!’ This is the first proper look we’ve had at humanoid robot K-2SO, voiced (and motion-capture performed) by ‘Firefly’ star Alan Tudyk. Given his clipped English accent and tendency to quantify the likelihood of failure (a 97.6 percent chance, apparently), we reckon he must be Threepio’s third cousin.
Some kind of mega-disaster is going to occur
It’s only a brief glimpse, but the shot of Cassian piloting his shuttle craft through what looks like a planet-smashing sandstorm might be the most intriguing moment in the trailer. Does the Empire take vengeance on the last Jedi by wrecking their planet? Or is this a new world we’ve not been told about yet?
Darth Vader… back in black
In the last trailer, we heard him breathe. Now we get a shot of the back of his shiny black helmet, framed against some kind of artsy red Death Star design schematic. It’s an appropriate chilly end for a riveting, heart-pounding trailer. December really can’t come fast enough…
‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ is out on Dec 16.