Say, that's a nice Dark Helmet. Ahem.
A new trailer for the upcoming film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story dropped during last night's coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympics, giving Star Wars fans a better idea of what to expect in December, along with teasing the return of the franchise's most popular villain.
The two-minute trailer opens with Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) meeting with Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker), a Clone Wars veteran who is an insurgent that hates the Empire and is seen by the Rebels almost as a terrorist. "The world is coming undone," Saw says to her. "Imperial flags reign across the galaxy."
We then see an Imperial Star Destroyer dwarfing an entire city on the mesa below it. This is apparently Jedha, a sacred world to those who believe in the Force that was conquered by a dictatorship.
"Can you be trusted without your shackles?" asks a Rebel officer to a handcuffed, Jyn as she enters the Rebel command center inside their base on Yavin IV.
"Let's just get this over with, shall we?" replies Jyn.
Mon Mothma (Genevieve O'Reilly) informs Jyn, "We have a mission for you. A major weapons test is imminent. We need to know how to destroy it." Once again, we see footage of the weapons dish being placed onto the original Death Star during construction.
"If you're really doing this," says Captain Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) as we see a new U-Wing fighter lifting off, "I want to help."
"I've been recruiting for the rebellion for a long time," says Cassian as we see another world of tall peaks and lightning storms. Their U-Wing glides through the chasms of this unspecified world.
"They destroyed our home," remarks Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen) as he fires his weapon at Stormtroopers. Behind him is Chirrut Imwe (Donnie Yen), a blind warrior-monk. Both are natives of Jedha, and this appears to be a revenge assault.
"I fear nothing. All is as the Force wills it," says Chirrut, now on the streets of the plateau city on Jedha. He walks toward a squad of Stormtroopers and takes them out with his staff, freeing Jyn and Cassian in the process.
Next, we see the Rebel-owned and reprogrammed Imperial enforcer droid K-2SO (voiced by Alan Tudyk) who towers over Jyn and states, "The captain says you are a friend. I will not kill you." Jyn offers the droid her thanks.
"There isn't much time," Jyn says as we see the sun over Jedha blocked out in an eclipse, presumably by the Death Star. "Every day, they grow stronger."
We then see Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), head of the Empire's Advanced Weapons Research division, walking toward a view of the planet, surrounded by Imperial officers and Deathtroopers.
This is followed by various battle scenes, both on the beach world of Scarif and in the streets shown earlier. K-2SO helpfully informs Cassian, "There is a 97.6% chance of failure." Cassian tries to reassure a fellow Rebel spy, "He means well."
More battle scenes follow, with the Rebel forces firing some form of RPG weapon at an AT-ACT Imperial Walker.
"This is our chance to make a real difference," Jyn tells Saw as we go back to their earlier meeting. "Are you with me?"
We see Jyn walking toward the edge of an outside platform, armed only with a blaster, to confront an Imperial TIE Fighter. A group shot of the assembled Rebel forces readying for attack follows, with Cassian saying "All the way."
Lastly, we see the teased image shown above of Darth Vader staring at some computer display. For some reason.
If you'd like to check out the trailer, you can view it below thanks to the official Star Wars account on YouTube...
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is scheduled to arrive in theaters on December 16, 2016.