The First Trailer for ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ is Dark, Intense and Oh-So-Awesome

Yes, there are X-Wings in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. There are Stormtroopers and AT-ATs and the Death Star, too. But the Gareth Edwards-directed flick — the first of Disney’s non-Saga extensions — is missing one major element from every Star Wars movie you’ve ever seen: the Jedi.

From the looks of the first trailer, which premiered this morning on Good Morning America, this is going to be a straight-up, no-holds-barred war film, with no mysticism or midichlorians coming to save the Rebels from the Empire’s overwhelming arsenal. And oh my Wookie, does it ever look good.

Centered on a ragtag group of Rebels sent to steal the plans for the original Death Star, the movie’s got a cast stacked with heavy-hitters — Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Forest Whittaker and our main man Donnie Yen — along with some truly epic cinematography from Greig Fraser, who was also behind the camera on Zero Dark Thirty. 

There’s been a lot of skepticism about these standalone movies — rightly so, if you ask us, with that Han Solo origin story still in the works — but so far all signs are pointing to Rogue One being a worthy, incredibly badass addition to the Star Wars canon. It hits theaters on December 16th.