Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images(ANAHEIM, Calif.) — While it might be hard to believe, there was other news coming out of the fan festival Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim over the weekend, other than the revelation of the movie’s latest teaser.
Not only did Electronic Arts reveal footage from its eagerly anticipated Star Wars: Battlefront game — which lets players relive some of the greatest battles in the Star Wars saga — but a teaser was also screened of the first Star Wars “anthology” movie, Star Wars: Rogue One.
The snippet of Rogue One, which is set between Star Wars: Episode III and IV, was screened during a scheduled panel Q&A with directors Gareth Edwards and Josh Trank on Sunday.
Trank, who is to direct the second “stand-alone” Star Wars movie, tweeted in sick at the last moment, but Edwards was on hand to not only screen the footage, but also show some concept art, and confirm that Rogue One centers on the Rebels’ attempt to steal the plans to the Death Star. As you may recall, the plans were later smuggled inside R2-D2, and ultimately used to find a fatal flaw in the space station’s construction that Luke Skywalker exploited to destroy it in Episode IV.
The teaser footage was brief, and hasn’t been released officially, but opens as the camera flies over a forest-covered planet, and the voice of Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi is heard from that film. “For over a thousand generations the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic,” Kenobi says, as a single Imperial TIE Fighter flies over the treetops.
“Before the dark times,” he continues. “Before the Empire.” With that, the camera pans up to a ghostly sunrise: the Death Star, looming large on the horizon.
Edwards explained the movie, which stars Felicity Jones as a Rebel soldier in the film, will shy away from the Jedi, and center more on the “war” aspect of Star Wars.
While Battlefront is slated for a Nov. 17 release, Rogue One will be released in December 2016 by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.
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