Check out Our Ridiculously Detailed Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Teaser Trailer Breakdown!
Yeah I know, the happy tingling caused by multiple viewings of Star Wars: The Force Awakens has barely subsided, and now we’re hit with a new Star Wars trailer. This time, it’s the first of a series of planned Star Wars anthologies, the first of which, Rogue One, will be hitting theaters on December 16th, 2016. This Gareth Edwards-directed film promises to tell the tale of how the Rebel Alliance acquires the plans to the first Death Star. You know, the plans that Princess Leia inserted into R2-D2 to begin the Star Wars saga. Since Rogue One was announced, fans everywhere have been wondering what this new Star Wars Anthology would look like. After all, a Star Wars film focused on hardcore military drama and sans Jedi would be very different than the films that proceeded it. Well, now we’ve seen the Rogue One trailer for the first time and these are the moments that locked our X-foils in attack position!
It’s Ralph McQuarrie’s World- We Just Live in It.
Ralph McQuarrie was the visionary artist that designed just about every familiar and iconic element of the original trilogy. Truthfully, he is the Star Wars version of Jack Kirby. The first thing about Rogue One that jumped out at us is the classic aesthetic of the whole thing. I mean, every frame looks like a Ralph McQuarrie painting come to life. Rogue One really does look like it was filmed during the making of the 1977 Star Wars with so many comfortingly familiar looking New Hope characters filling every frame. From the original Stormtrooper design, to those iconic, white-helmeted Rebel troopers, to classic Power Droids (God, I love me some Power Droids), everything feels right and there’s just something damn exciting about seeing those original X-Wings and Star Destroyers. Han Solo said, “We’re home” in the second Force Awakens trailer, and the visuals and set design of Rogue One takes us even deeper into the comfortable, familiar, Ralph McQuarrie-inspired world that we fell in love with a long, long time ago.
Mon Mothma!
Other than Princess Leia Organa, Mon Mothma was probably the most iconic woman in the original Star Wars saga (sorry, Beru). When Mon Mothma appeared wearing her familiar white frock in the Rogue One trailer, let’s just say that I was one happy Star Wars fan. Mon Mothma’s presence creates a great tether to the original trilogy and best of all, Rogue One’s Mon Mothma will be played by Genevieve O’Reilly, the actress who was going to portray the Rebel leader in Revenge of the Sith until her scene was cut. Well, now O’Reilly will have her day because one of the Rebels’ wisest and classiest leaders has returned.
The Era of Star Wars Diversity Continues.
Rogue One features Felicity Jones as the film’s protagonist Jyn Erso, giving us the second female Star Wars lead in as many years. In addition, we have the great Forest Whitaker in a major role as well as Asian cinema legend Donnie Yen, and talented Latino actor Diego Luna. Rogue One is another Star Wars film that offers multiple cultural and gender perspectives as Star Wars takes the lead in making sci-fi adventure more inclusive. More important than diversity, all the actors mentioned are absolutely A-list killer-screen presences promising to make this Star Wars film not only inclusive, but also pretty damn exiting. I mean, whoever through we’d see Donnie Yen kicking Imperial ass in a Star Wars film?
AT-ATs, Man. Freakin’ AT-ATs.
The Battle of Hoth has long been considered the most iconic and intense moment in The Empire Strikes Back. Why? AT-ATs, that’s why. Those walking tanks have stomped their way into Star Wars lore and now, Rogue One promises more hot AT-AT action. That one scene of the AT-ATs wreaking havoc was absolutely mind-blowing for fans waiting to see these deadly pieces of heavy artillery spring into action once again. It’s been thirty-five years, but this new trailer proves that AT-ATs will never not be awesome.
The Death Star
And of course, the centerpiece of it all: the Death Star. Seeing the radar dish set into place by a fleet of Star Destroyers? Wow. Just…wow. It feels the visual of the Death Star being constructed could have been a cut-scene from A New Hope as Edwards somehow manages to capture the same sense of proportion and awe established in the first Star Wars film. Rogue One is centered on the Death Star and seeing it in all its terrible glory once again will be a day long remembered by Star Wars fans everywhere.
All this and we haven’t even seen Darth Vader yet.
So, are you still picking your jaw off the floor? Let us know below!
