If new trailers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens , Star Wars: Battlefront , and Star Wars: Rebels wasn’t enough for fans of the science fiction franchise, a trailer for Rogue One leaked out from the Star Wars Celebration convention on Sunday. It’s likely to be taken down quickly, but the official synopsis for the stand-alone was released revealing that it takes place prior to A New Hope .
Producer Kathleen Kennedy, Lucasfilm’s vice president of development Kiri Hart, and director Gareth Edwards all took the stage at the Star Wars Celebration to introduce Star Wars: Rogue One and it’s plot. The film will take place prior to Episode 4: A New Hope and will follow a rogue band of rebels who attempt to steal the plans for the Death Star.
Edwards said that the plot would “come down to a group of individuals who don’t have magical powers that have to somehow bring hope to the galaxy.”
That would be the same Death Star plans that allow Luke Skywalker to destroy the Death Star in the first Star Wars film.
A band of resistance fighters unite for a daring mission to steal the Death Star plans in Star Wars anthology film, Rogue One #RogueOne .
— Star Wars (@starwars) April 19, 2015
The teaser trailer opens with Obi-Wan Kenobi’s voice-over from the original Star Wars film: “For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times… before the Empire.”
The camera passes over a jungle as Kenobi speaks and a Tie Fighter can be seen flying overhead. As the camera continues to pan upward, viewers can see what looks like the outline of a moon. Only, that’s no moon. It’s the Death Star.
You can catch the leaked version of the trailer via YouTube user kinddragon8 below. It’s cellphone footage off-screen, but we will replace it as soon as the official version is released.
Star Wars: Rogue One will be the first of a series of stand-alone films that are situated outside of the main line of films. Kennedy and Hart called these “anthology films” during the panel. The second stand-alone film will be directed by Chronicle director Josh Trank and is currently rumored to be about Han Solo.
Felicity Jones will star as one of the rebel soldiers in Star Wars: Rogue One and Ben Mendelsohn is rumored to be part of the cast as well. The film is currently scheduled to be released on December 16, 2016 to serve as a filler between Episode VII: The Force Awakens and the yet to be named Episode VIII directed by Rian Johnson.
[Images via IGN ]