Rogue One — the Star Wars movie that’s not one of the Star Wars (but rather a “Star Wars story”) has a new trailer. And it’s fine! From this alone, (not that the manipulatively made form of the trailer is ever that good of an indication of anything beyond how good a trailer is) it doesn’t look like the disaster it could have been, given the reshoots and the enlisting of Tony Gilroy to take over the final cut from Godzilla director Gareth Edwards and help reshape an ending that allegedly wasn’t previously working. Rogue One has seemed like a bit of a corporate cinematic collage — but at least whatever the trailer reveals looks cohesive, if not as vital as The Force Awakens.
Though it takes place a little before the events of A New Hope — just as plans for the Death Star are being executed — it’s firmly being called a spinof and not a prequel. (Perhaps because our affiliation with the words “Star Wars” and “prequel” are still so tarnished by the Phantom Menace and the subsequent films which tend to just go unmentioned.) The film follows a thief named Jyn Ergo (Felicity Jones) who joins a rebel group of spies who’re attempting to steal the plans for the Death Star to prevent Darth Vader’s dominance via massive space-bubble. (It’s not much of a spoiler to say that clearly, at least from what we know about everything that follows, they don’t exactly succeed.)
Also, there’s a peek at the back of Darth Vader’s head, which means that both the nostalgic villain and the nostalgic back of his head will presumably be very present in the film.
The new trailer was released during the Rio Olympics telecast, and beyond its stupendous cast (Forest Whitaker, Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, and The Night Of/Nightcrawler breakout star Riz Ahmed), it looks, well, like a Star Wars movie at least. Or, excuse me, a Star Wars Story.
Watch the trailer: