Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

New trailer for ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ to premiere on TV, online next week

star wars rogue one news and rumors version 1476290117
Image used with permission by copyright holder
The Star Wars Celebration convention kicks off in London next week, but Star Wars fans on this side of the ocean will get a treat on Friday, July 15, when a new trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story premieres in the U.S.

A new, three-minute preview of the highly anticipated movie will debut during ABC’s broadcast of Secrets of The Force Awakens: A Cinematic Journey, a documentary on last year’s blockbuster sequel that was also available on the DVD and Blu-ray editions of The Force Awakens. Although the trailer will likely find its way online before the show’s 8 p.m. ET/PT broadcast, fans will certainly want to set their DVRs and mark their calendars for the preview’s official premiere, just to be safe.

News of the trailer’s premiere arrives via Star Wars news site Making Star Wars, which posted screenshots of the documentary’s guide description that includes a mention of the Rogue One trailer. However, with the film’s official panel scheduled for earlier that day in London, the trailer is likely to premiere during that event, then find its way online — either officially or unofficially — after the panel.

Directed by Monsters and Godzilla filmmaker Gareth Edwards, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is set in the period between the events of prequel film Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith and the franchise-spawning 1977 film Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope. The film follows the group of rebel agents tasked with stealing the plans to the Death Star.

Oscar-nominated The Theory of Everything actress Felicity Jones stars as the resourceful rebel Jyn Erso. 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 features a script penned by About a Boy and The Golden Compass screenwriter Chris Weitz, based on a story conceived by Star Wars franchise veteran John Knoll (who also serves as an executive producer on the film) and The Book of Eli and The Walking Dead: The Game writer Gary Whitta. Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat (The Grand Budapest Hotel, The King’s Speech) will provide the film’s score.

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

Editors' Recommendations

Rick Marshall
A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…
Every time we’ve seen Order 66 in Star Wars movies, video games, and TV shows
Anakin marches to the Jedi temple in Revenge of the Sith.

Twenty years ago, if you asked a Star Wars fan to name the most pivotal moment in the franchise’s fictional history, you could be confident that they’d answer with the Battle of Yavin, the climax of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. After all, this event serves as the starting point of the official Star Wars calendar; fans and producers alike measure time in Star Wars in terms of years BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin) or years ABY (After the Battle of Yavin), endowing the destruction of the Death Star with a historical importance within the fictional galaxy that's equivalent to the birth of Christ. Though the BBY/ABY calendar is still in service today, the ever-expanding Star Wars continuity now revolves around a different moment of historical import: Order 66, the flashpoint of the Jedi Purge and the rebranding of the Galactic Republic into the Galactic Empire.
First depicted in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith in 2005, Order 66 has become the most revisited moment in the current Star Wars canon, and explored from a multitude of perspectives. Then-Supreme Chancellor Palpatine’s directive to execute the entire Jedi Order, from the ruling council to the youngest student, is now the inciting incident for Star Wars as we know it. Every character active in galactic affairs in the year 19 BBY has their own Order 66 story, and several of them have been depicted in film, television, and video games. Let's takea look back at each substantive on-screen portrayal of the Jedi Purge to determine what (if anything) each of them adds to our understanding of the tragedy and its repercussions on the Star Wars galaxy.

Revenge of the Sith shows the broad strokes of the Jedi Purge

Read more
A new Star Wars quest begins in the first trailer for Ahsoka
Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano in Ahsoka.

Today at Star Wars Celebration, Lucasfilm unveiled trailers for three of its upcoming Star Wars series. Unfortunately, the only trailer that the fans at home will get to see is for Ahsoka, a new original show featuring Rosario Dawson as the fan-favorite heroine from Star Wars: The Clone Wars. As revealed during her guest appearance on The Mandalorian, Ahsoka is seeking out an old enemy, Grand Admiral Thrawn, a popular character from the Star Wars novels. And his return as "the heir to the Empire" is something that has Ahsoka deeply concerned.

Ahsoka | Teaser Trailer | Disney+

Read more
A Disturbance in the Force trailer shines light on infamous Star Wars Holiday Special
The cast of Star Wars standing next to each other.

In 1978, CBS aired the Star Wars Holiday Special, a two-hour spin-off film 18 months after the success of A New Hope. The special never aired again. A new documentary, A Disturbance in the Force, attempts to figure out what went wrong with the most reviled Star Wars adventure in franchise history.

A Disturbance in the Force Teaser Trailer - SXSW 2023

Read more