An unexpected teaser trailer just dropped this morning for the Star Wars spin-off/standalone tale known as Rogue One, or Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. It centers around a new character, a young woman played by Felicity Jones known as Jyn Erso, who would seemingly become a rebel spy working against the Empire in the earlier days of the Rebellion—aka, before A New Hope but after Return of the Sith.
The teaser feels like one for a modern Hollywood action film that’s also trying to take itself a bit seriously—it’s got the gravitas, a slowed-down version of some iconic Star Wars music, etc. The action looks pretty sweet—how can you not be excited to have one of the greatest martial artists in the world, Donnie Yen, in a Star Wars movie of all places?
If there’s one area that things seem a bit overdone, it’s perhaps the dialog, which frames Erso’s character as a troubled kid or drifter—she sounds like Leonardo DiCaprio as Billy Costigan in The Departed, going undercover in the Imperial ranks. Except this time the goal is Death Star plans. The “This is a rebellion, isn’t it? I rebel” line is a bit cringey, but that’s tempered by the fact that we actually get to see it delivered to none other than Mon Mothma. Meanwhile, her rap sheet that begins the trailer sound like something that would be delivered about Jack Sparrow in one of the Pirates movies.
We’ll just have to see as future Rogue One information continues to leak out. The film is currently due for a Dec. 16 release.