Though shooting is currently underway, we haven’t seen a whole lot from the first of the Star Wars anthology films, which will be called Star Wars: Rogue One. That changed today, though, as Disney revealed the very first photo at D23.
Featuring Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed, Jiang Wen and Donnie Yen, we get a good glimpse at the gritty feel that director Gareth Edwards is going for here, which certainly falls in line with his previous comments about the film feeling “real…This is a real place that we’re really in.”
Telling the story of “resistance fighters who have united to steal plans to the dreaded Death Star,” Rogue One certainly looks and already feels a lot different from the main entries in the franchise, and as producer Kathleen Kennedy says, the film will go into “new territory.”
“‘Rogue One’ takes place before the events of Star Wars: A New Hope and will be a departure from the saga films but have elements that are familiar to the Star Wars universe,” says Kathleen Kennedy. “It goes into new territory, exploring the galactic struggle from a ground-war perspective while maintaining that essential Star Wars feel that fans have come to know. Gareth is such an innovative director and I’m so excited to be working with him and the extraordinary ensemble cast he’s selected for ‘Rogue One.’”
Along with the new photo, we also heard today that two new cast members had joined the production, and they come in the form of Mads Mikkelsen and Alan Tudyk. No word yet on the specifics of their roles, but they’re definitely involved in some capacity.
Star Wars: Rogue One will blast into theatres on December 16th, 2016. Take a look at the first photo above and let us know what you make of it. Do you dig the tone and look that Edwards is trying to achieve?