Feast your eyes on the first sizzle reel for ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’

By Rick Marshall July 15, 2016

Star Wars Celebration kicked off this week in London, and it’s clear that The Force is strong with this year’s convention.

How strong? Well, it just gave us a new poster (see below) and a behind-the-scenes teaser (or a “sizzle reel,” if you want to use the industry term) for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story full of fresh footage and practical effects for fans to fawn over.

Rogue One Teaser — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Clocking in with nearly three minutes of footage, the new teaser features showcases the work both behind the camera and in front of it that’s going into this year’s Star Wars standalone film. The preview was introduced by the cast and creative team on Rogue One during Friday’s movie panel at Star Wars Celebration, hosted by Star Wars: The Force Awakens (and Game of Thrones) actress Gwendoline Christie.

The Rogue One teaser is the second major preview the studio has released for the upcoming Star Wars spinoff, which unfolds during the time between the events of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and the franchise-starting Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. The film tells the story of the ragtag group of rebel agents tasked with stealing the plans to the Death Star — the same plans that become the focal point of the original 1977 film.

Directed by Monsters and Godzilla filmmaker Gareth Edwards, Rogue One stars Oscar-nominated The Theory of Everything actress Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso, and she’s joined in the cast by Diego Luna (Milk), Ben Mendelsohn (Bloodline), Donnie Yen (Ip Man), Jiang Wen (Let the Bullets Fly), Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland), Mads Mikkelsen (Hannibal), and Riz Ahmed (Nightcrawler). Firefly actor Alan Tudyk provides the motion-capture performance for the robot K-2SO.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is scheduled to hit theaters December 16.

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