The teaser for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has arrived this morning, and it’s packed with a surprising amount of nods to the original trilogy.
Right off the bat, we’ve got Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) walking through an X-Wing hangar in a shot reminiscent of the hangars A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. In fact, you’ll see many such nods as you go through the trailer, ranging from set design to costumes; everything about the interior of the Death Star that we see is note-perfect. But you might not notice, at first, because Erso is no slouch in the fighting department:
Erso appears to be rescuing a squad of Rebel pilots the Empire are, for some reason, perp-walking through a village. And while we don’t see it happen, she manages to take out a tank supporting the Stormtroopers that appears elsewhere in the trailer.
We learn that Erso isn’t exactly popular among either the Empire, as the trailer introduces her with a voiceover listing off her crimes, or the Rebellion, which views her a loose cannon. Anyway, after a tense confrontation with Mon Mothma, she’s off to find the Death Star plans. In a nice touch, Mothma is played by Genevieve O’Reilly, who depicted a young Mothma in some scenes deleted from Episode III. The Death Star, meanwhile, is almost finished:
Another new cast member shown off is Ben Mendelsohn, playing a Grand Admiral who seems to be the central antagonist of this particular story. Notice, too, the hologram in the background, yet another nod to the design of the original trilogy. We also see him at what seems to be one of the central set pieces of the movie, an enormous fight at a Rebel hanger reminiscent of the Battle of Hoth, albeit in a less-icy environment, right down to the AT-ATs:
There are other unresolved questions, as well. What, or who, is in this tube? Why is it guarded by the Emperor’s personal team? And who’s that cloaked figure advancing on it?
Forest Whitaker narrates much of the trailer, but it’s not clear who he is. He may be a Mandalorian, if his battle armor is any indication, but his speech is about the moral compromises a soldier makes, which is an interesting theme.
Also left open is why Donnie Yen is beating up Stormtroopers with a stick, even if the nod to the samurai movies that inspired George Lucas is a nice touch.
And then, finally, there’s this closing shot. Is Erso a traitor? Is she a former Imperial pilot? Is she pulling the classic false flag operation that lets Luke and Han run around the Death Star in A New Hope? We’ll find out soon enough: Rogue One is out this December.
