The Star Wars Celebration has begun. This time around it’s being held at the ExCeL London Exhibition Centre in the UK. This convention-of-sorts is held, it seems, yearly now and celebrates everything Old and New in the massive pop culture phenomenon that is Star Wars.
The big story we were all waiting for this time around was for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and I believe we were not disappointed. Even if you were not lucky enough to attend, Disney has kindly released the first teaser behind-the-scenes sizzle reel for Rogue One – which Director Gareth Edwards and the cast premiered at the event during their panel. This isn’t too surprising, as they released one for The Force Awakens at the event last year. Check out the Rogue One celebration reel below.
The clip, running in at almost 3 minutes, shows off some amazing looking characters doing battle with the Empire. This is that “band of rebels forming together to steal the original Death Star plans” that we’ve heard so much about, with the clip going on to highlight some awesome battle sequences and amazing looking set pieces. The stand out of these would be the sand battles on a planet we now know as Jedha – a new addition to the Star Wars Universe.
It was also discovered at Celebrations that the Rogue One story was initially made to be a live action Star Wars TV Series before Disney took over. Director Gareth Edwards, who previously directed 2014’s Godzilla, seems to pay homage to this in every single way a Star Wars fan would want, bringing to the table a brand new shooting style to create his own film from it all. Trying to stick to the aesthetic of the films would be a tough ask. But from what we have seen, I am sure Edwards knows what he is playing around with and the team at LucasFilm have done this a few times before.
In the upcoming film we get to meet Felicia Jones as the new Hero Jyn Erso.
The always mesmerizing Mads Mikkelsen as Jyn’s father Galen.
Donnie Yen as Chirrut Imwe (donning some more of his powerful martial art skills).
Forest Whitaker as Saw Gerrera.
Diego Luna as Captain Cassian Andor.
Riz Ahmed as Bodhi Rook.
With a big spotlight from me going towards the brilliant looking Genevieve O’Reilly taking on the role of Mon Mothma, who we met in the original film series. She looks remarkably similar doesn’t she?
Alan Tudyk takes a role as the, slightly off hinged (mentally and physically it seems) Droid K-2SO.
To top it all off we have the bad guys led by Ben Mendelsohn as Director Krennic.
The private trailer only shown to those that attended Celebrations also brought to light the return of James Earl Jones as the iconic villain Darth Vader. Sadly those of us who couldn’t attend the event may not get to see this preview any time soon, but I am crossing my fingers it gets released later in the year.
Now that day 2 is on its way, I am sure we will all hear and see some more spine tingling news coming our way. Maybe a sneak at Episode VIII? We can only hope as the date for the movie gets closer and closer. For now, I can gladly tell you that Star Wars is going to be around for quite some time yet. So, May The Force Be With You.
Watch the full Rogue One panel here, which was hosted by Gwendoline Christie (Captain Phasma):
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hits theatres December 15th 2016
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