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.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…

Entertainment

The 10 best lightsaber duels in Star Wars, ranked

Luke Skywalker lunges towards Darth Vader during their lightsaber fight on Cloud City.

Star Wars has contributed countless indelible moments and images to our popular culture, but if there’s one artifact that is most intrinsic to the Galaxy Far, Far Away, it’s the fantastical weapon of the Jedi Knights, the lightsaber. From the very first time audiences saw Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader cross glowing, humming swords aboard the Death Star in 1977, we’ve been absolutely obsessed, and storytellers across multiple media and nearly half a century have been only too happy to indulge our craving for increasingly elaborate lightsaber duels.
Lightsaber fights come in all shapes and sizes, from emotional one-on-one bouts in live-action to wild animated free-for-alls, and selecting our 10 favorites from the franchise to date was no easy task. There are a lot of metrics by which to judge — the excitement of the action itself, how it’s shot, the story behind it, the use of environment, even the music to which it’s set — but the cream of the crop are those duels that either dominate one category or harmoniously balance each one. Will your favorites make the list? You’ll find we’re full of surprises …

10. The Ronin vs. the Bandit Leader (The Duel - Visions, season 1, episode 1)

Entertainment

Like Ahsoka? Watch these 7 Star Wars Rebels episodes

Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano aboard her shuttle in "Ahsoka."

The next chapter of the Star Wars: Rebels saga has come with the premiere of the Disney+ series, Ahsoka. Set years after the disappearance of Ezra Bridger and Grand Admiral Thrawn, the show follows Ahsoka Tano when she seeks them both out as she tries to prevent another war with the remnants of the Galactic Empire.

Since this is a sequel series, some audiences may have some catching up to do. But if they like Ahsoka so far, they should check out these seven episodes of Star Wars: Rebels.
The Siege of Lothal (Parts 1 and 2)

Entertainment

The 10 best Star Wars action scenes, ranked

Luke Skywalker faces Darth Vade in The Empire Strikes Back.

If there's one thing that Star Wars does better than any other space opera, it's action. Since the debut of the original Star Wars film in 1977, the franchise has continuously upped its action game and put other franchises to shame. This week, the legacy continues with Ahsoka, a new Star Wars spinoff series heading to Disney+. If the trailers are any indication, fans are in for more lightsaber action and intrigue.

When considering the greatest action scenes in Star Wars, we decided that everything in the movies, the live-action series, and the animated series was fair game. However, the franchise's epic space battles have been left out of this list because we wanted to focus on the more visceral action scenes between two or more characters. After all, that is where the greatest drama can be found, as you'll soon see in our roundup of the 10 best Star Wars action scenes.
10. Obi-Wan Kenobi vs. Anakin Skywalker in Revenge of the Sith