With only scraps of information having leaked out about the specifics of the new Star Wars standalone film, Rogue One, about the Rebellion obtaining the secret Death Star plans, there was more than a little anticipation for the first full-length trailer that was promised to air sometime tonight during the Olympics. Finally, after some history making Olympic events, the voice of Ryan Seacrest popped up to introduce what so many of us had been waiting patiently for, and it paid off immensely.
We don’t get much in the way of the story, the circumstances behind it, or any exposition at all, really. Instead we get glimpses of fully-realized, spell-binding, swashbuckling Star Wars action. Beautifully crips shots of Star Destroyers and TIE Fighters, both in-atmosphere and in deep space, contrast with not only the a struggling Rebellion, but a mysterious, decidedly non-Jedi force user. With flashes of several different locations, it’s going to be a long road of speculation as to which one will be Jedha, which director Gareth Edwards described as a kind of planet-sized Mecca for the Force.
What these shots do is deliver most promising premise of all these proposed ‘Anthology’ entries to the now-yearly Star Wars movies. It builds on an existing world, giving the current lore a more detailed backstory and focusing on characters outside of the Skywalker saga. Not including Darth Vader, of course, who we get a delightful little snippet of from behind.
This also looks promising, but let’s not forget the last time we got a quick flash of Vader in a Star Wars trailer it was for Revenge of the Sith, and I think we all remember how that worked out.
