This year's Star Wars Celebration is all about Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and the weekend-long event is wasting no time in showing off all the new footage for which fans have been waiting.
During a Rogue One panel featuring director Gareth Edwards and others responsible for bringing the film to life, a behind-the-scenes clip featuring tons of new footage from the film made its debut. What it shows is a grittier, more in-the-trenches-style Star Wars film, something that Edwards and Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy touched on during the panel.
Kennedy says Edwards could often be found with his camera on his shoulder in the thick of the scene, getting shots that would have been otherwise impossible. Edwards made remarks on the challenge of making a film so closely related to his favorite film of all time, A New Hope, but at the same time, feeling the need to bring something new and fresh to the Star Wars table.
The idea of The Force Awakens being too similar to A New Hope was one of the main complaints against director J.J. Abrams' Star Wars film, and it seems like Edwards is trying to avoid that with Rogue One.
Judging from the footage, it looks like Edwards has succeeded in that goal. There are plenty of new sights for fans to take in. In addition to new types of Stormtroopers, vehicles and alien races, Rogue One truly does look like a war film set in the Star Wars universe. There are tons of practical effects, the characters look like they've been through hell and back, and there's a rawness to the footage that makes it look unlike anything Star Wars fans have seen before. There are also tons and tons of explosions. Check out the video for yourself below.
However, that wasn't the only reveal to come out of the panel. Edwards also unveiled a new poster for the film, one that prominently features the Death Star in the background, along with the tagline "A Rebellion Built on Hope."
The film's first trailer and the behind-the-scenes video both feature footage from the beach location seen in the poster, so it appears that the cast will spend a significant portion of the film there. It may be on the tropical planet where the Death Star plans are stolen.
Footage from the behind-the-scenes video clearly shows Felicity Jones running on a beach with what appears to be some kind of a hard drive-like device as explosions erupt all around. You can check out the poster below.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story arrives in theaters on Dec. 16.
