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‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’: International Trailer Reveals Death Star In Action

By Dustin Wicksell
Published on: 11:35 PST, Nov 12, 2016

Star Wars fans have believed since 1977’s A New Hope (originally just called Star Wars) that the first planet to fall to the Death Star was Princess Leia’s adopted home of Alderaan, yet the new international trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story seems to indicate that might not be the case.

International trailers for major films can at times be more revealing than their domestic counterparts, and that has proved to be very much the case for Rogue One, as Maxim reports. The film, already revealed to be much darker and very different than any previous Star Wars movie to come before it, is depicted in the trailer in all its dystopian glory; the Empire reigns supreme, even upon the Force-sacred world of Jedha, thought to be a key location in the story.

As the Inquisitr has already reported, it is no secret why Jedha is sacred to Force users (and those who regard the Force as a religion), nor why it possesses strategic value for the Empire. The planet is known to be a key source for Kyber crystals, a naturally occurring mineral that Jedi and Sith alike use to focus the blades of their lightsabers. Turned to another purpose, these crystals are also responsible for the Imperial State’s ultimate weapon, the Death Star’s planet-killing laser.

In the newest trailer for Rogue One, audiences get a rare look at these crystals, as Jyn Erso’s mother places one around her neck, telling her obviously terrified daughter to trust in the Force. As Wired points out, young Jyn’s familiarity with the crystals is hardly an accident, for it is her father Galen, played by actor Mads Mikkelsen, who is responsible for the design of the Death Star. As we learn in the international trailer, he is also responsible for sending the Rebellion a message revealing the existence of the moon-sized battle station, thus inadvertently drawing his daughter into the mission to recover its blueprints.

Perhaps most intriguingly, we see that the Death Star apparently attacks another planet in Rogue One, which appears to be Jedha itself. Fans will no doubt be surprised by this, as the events of A New Hope all but confirmed that the battle station had not fired on another world before Alderaan. Grand Moff Tarkin himself, for instance, describes it as “the planet that will be destroyed first,” thereby demonstrating the Death Star’s ultimate firing power.

Rogue One‘s trailer appears to contradict this narrative, showing the Death Star’s main weapon pouring its signature green fire unto a planet as Jyn and her compatriots flee. It is possible, however, that the attack isn’t planned to devastate and destroy Jedha, but rather to harvest its reserves of Kyber crystals, thereby fully powering the Empire’s ultimate superweapon. Though this is simply speculation, it would reconcile the timeline, and more fully explain the Empire’s interest in the Force-sacred planet.

The international trailer for Rogue One has also been reported as revealing more of Darth Vader, though in truth only a new shot or two are present in the two-minute-long clip. The Sith lord’s ultimate role in the film has been the subject of deep speculation ever since his presence in the story was first rumored over a year ago. Whatever it proves to be, Star Wars fans now have just a month to wait before their questions are answered, as Rogue One hits theaters on December 16.

[Featured Image by Ben A. Pruchnie/Getty Images for Walt Disney Studios]

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