We finally got another trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story yesterday, and it was packed full of new stuff — including, of course, Darth Vader. We’ve gone through it with a magnifying glass and all of our nerdery to see what secrets and details are hiding inside it.
The opening shot is of this city/fortress built on a reddish rock mesa. This is Jedha, a planet that Gareth Edwards has said was once home to Force users. Donnie Yen, who plays blind warrior Chirrut Imwe, recently confirmed it’s the home of the kyber crystals, which are used in lightsabers — but are also important to the Empire as crystals for its new superweapon.
We get more of Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) and Jyn Erso’s (Felicity Jones) conversation, which also featured heavily in the last trailer. We know Guerra’s been waging a war against the occupying Imperial force on Jedha, so we can also bet that that’s where this is taking place.
“The world is coming undone. Imperial flags reign across the galaxy,” he says.
Just in case you were wondering just how occupied Jedha is, here’s a Star Destroyer parked above it.
Another thing that’s more from a scene we got in the first trailer: Erso’s briefing with the Rebellion. “Can you be trusted without your shackles?”
“Let’s just get this over with, shall we?” Erso says after Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) unlocks them.
“We have a mission for you,” says Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly). “A major weapons test is imminent. We need to know how to destroy it.” And a Star Destroyer emerges from the shadow created by the laser focusing dish being installed on the Death Star. It is not, as has been suggested by some, a cloaking device.
“If you’re really doing this, I want to help,” says Cassian. Which is interesting, since it implies that the actual, respected Rebel intelligence officer wasn’t put on the Death Star mission by his superiors, but asked to go.
This is also where we see that Cassian and Erso start off this mission in the newly-revealed U-Wing. It’s got a lovely canopy.
We’ve also seen bits of this shot before, but with what we now know, it seems like this marketplace is on Jedha.
The U-Wing flies through rock formations, mist and lightning. The rock formations hint that it might be on Jedha, but I’m leaning to it either being another planet or at least a completely different part from the mesa seen earlier. I’ll show you why in a bit.
Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen) says, “They destroyed our home” before letting out a volley of blaster shots that take out Stormtroopers at an Imperial station of some kind.
Since rocks and mist match the U-Wing shot from earlier — and a later X-Wing shot — it seems likely that Malbus and Chirrut Imwe (Donnie Yen) are part of the ground team for a coordinated assault. This seems like part of the heist, as opposed to the Jedha scenes, which seem more like recruitment.
Another gorgeous shot of the U-Wing. Probably on Jedha.
“I fear nothing, all is as the Force wills it.” Imwe appears to be saving Cassian and Erso from Imperial captivity. His line also reminds us that he’s got no Force sensitivity, but still believes in it as a religion.
“The captain says you are a friend. I will not kill you,” K-2SO (Alan Tudyk) joins a long line of sociopathic droids. The “captain” is presumably Cassian, since we’ve heard that it’s Cassian who reprogrammed the Imperial droid to work for the Rebellion.
The Death Star arrives at Jedha, apparently upside down. And much closer than we’ve seen it need to be.
A rather ominous eclipse. That also looks like the mesa fortress we saw earlier right under the sun.
Director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) arrives on what I assume is a Death Star deck.
And, on a completely different note, there’s a battle going on Scarif, the beach planet which is supposedly where the Death Star was built.
The battle footage from both Scarif and the market on Jedha are both things we’ve seen before.
“There’s a 97.6 per cent chance of failure,” says K-2SO. No one has been identified as a Corellian yet, so no one tells him not to tell them the odds.
More on Scarif, with the black “Death troopers” which are Krennic’s own special force.
An exploding Imperial shuttle.
Appearing for the first time in this trailer, Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed) as an Imperial — note the arm patch — who defects. This kind of looks more like it might be on the Death Star, but the door behind him is actually the bay of the U-Wing’s transport section.
X-Wings bombard the same Imperial outpost that Baze shot at earlier.
Baze also takes out an AT-ACT, a new kind of Imperial walker, on Scarif.
This looks very much like Erso and Cassian’s U-Wing is escaping from a planet being devastated. Maybe the upside-down and very close Death Star was for a test of its abilities on Jedha? Or the laser isn’t powerful enough to destroy it all, but a very fast way to mine kyber crystals to make the Death Star we all know and love? Either way, Jedha looks like it’s in major trouble.
And they have to jump to hyperspace to be safe.
Rocks and mist again — same planet as the X-Wings and Baze, as some unfortunate Imperial technicians get blown up by a burning TIE Fighter.
This looks like Erso trying to get out of an Imperial station in the day, which might be the one we’ve seen them attacking at night. The beaches and water behind it make it likely this is Scarif — so the team is there trying to get more information on the Death Star. It’s probably the second location, after they pick up Baze and Imwe on Jedha.
Obligatory team shot on the transport.
And the whole thing ends with Vader — apparently a different shot than was shown at Celebration. It looks like he’s standing in front of the kind of sensor system we saw in A New Hope, which detailed the Death Star’s line of attack.
Missing from this trailer, and all footage, so far? Mads Mikkelson’s Galen Erso, Jyn’s father. Wonder why that is?