It hasn’t even been four months since The Force Awakens resurrected the Star Wars franchise, yet this morning we’re gifted with the first teaser trailer for the next installment in the Lucas-verse: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Set before the events of Episode IV, Rogue One finds Felicity Jones as an unnamed Rebel who leads an effort to steal the plans to the Death Star. The film will also star Mads Mikkelsen and Alan Tudyk, but we mostly only see Forest Whitaker, who seems to be aligned with some samurai-esque force. There are also stormtroopers with armor of various colors, gunmetal being the downright coolest, obviously. Part of the trailer is soundtracked by a ringing alarm, too, which sounds oddly like Kanye’s yelps on Yeezus. As far as “teasers” go, this one is pretty satisfying.
Rogue One is directed by Gareth Edwards, whose first two features, Monsters and Godzilla, featured, well, monsters and then Godzilla, though both of those stories centralized the human element. It’ll be curious to see his approach to the Star Wars universe, and whether or not he’ll in any way adhere to a kind of Lucas-inspired outline, as J.J. Abrams did in Episode VII.
Watch the trailer below. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story smashes into theaters this December.