Star Wars ‘Rogue One’ footage leaked a month ago and we JUST noticed

With Star Wars: The Force Awakens now baked into the fabric of pop culture, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story nearly a year away, the all-seeing eye of Sauron entertainment coverage turned from a galaxy far, far away. Superhero Season is ramping up, after all. Plus all those hotly anticipated shows are either back or about to kick into gear again. The world had moved on…momentarily.

That was a mistake.

While we were all distracted by men in rubber suits, Glenn”s fate, and Schrödinger's Jon Snow, somehow not one but TWO pieces of Rogue One footage leaked online. The first footage comes from over a month ago. It was allegedly filmed at Elstree Film Studios in the U.K., according to The Mirror. There isn”t much to go on in the low-quality video. A densely wooded forest spreads out beneath the camera while Obi-Wan Kenobi narrates. “For more than a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times. Before the Empire.” The camera then pulls up to reveal the Death Star in the distance and the screen cuts to static and the cries of a hectic battle.

*[UPDATE: 3/8/16 1:50PM EDT]: The Mirror got it wrong! The above teaser was from Star Wars Celebration last year. Thanks to Twitter user Jason Levy!

The official timeline of the Death Star”s construction has it being built above Geonosis. However, the project was moved to another secret base approximately three years before the Battle of Yavin in A New Hope. Wherever this footage is taking place is probably the final construction zone of the Empire”s ultimate weapon.

That tease would be enough by itself! But wait, there”s more! Earlier this month, Disney held their annual stockholders meetings. As part of the program, Disney showed off new footage from Rogue One. Which means someone surreptitiously recorded it, because obviously.

Labeled “ROGUE1_BvS_1_1,” the trailer shows dappled light coming through a canopy of leaves, most likely the forest seen in the earlier footage. The camera then cuts to AT-ATs lumbering across an unknown terrain with a backdrop of a sunset/sunrise sky. The number of suns is unknown. We end on a TIE fighter making its way through a cloud-filled sky, headed directly towards the Death Star looming in the distance. Does the craft carry our heroes?

Take note of that label. “ROGUE1_BvS” could easily stand for Batman v Superman. Rumors have been swirling the epic showdown between man and alien would have a Star Wars trailer attached. The label isn't proof, but it does add more fuel to the fire.

Then again, Pablo Hidalgo (Creative Executive, Lucasfilm Story Group) put out a tongue-in-cheek tweet which appears to imply the trailers are fake. So who knows! Maybe it is real, maybe it's a hoax! We'll find out soon enough.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story arrives in theaters on December 16, 2016.