Star Wars Rogue One Trailer Debuts

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is trying to follow a modest path, positioning itself as a sidebar to the main story arc created by the Star Wars tentpole movies, but Disney released a teaser trailer on Thursday morning that makes Rogue One look pretty epic in its own right.

The trailer centers around the character of Jyn Erso (played by Felicity Jones), a young Rebel Alliance soldier who is called upon to lead a group of Rebels in a quest to find a weakness in a new Imperial weapon system. We also get a good look at Diego Luna as a fellow Rebel and Forest Whitaker as a seasoned fighter of unknown allegiance.

The weapon system that the Rogue One team is set to infiltrate is, of course, the Death Star, and the trailer gives us some impressive glimpses of the new conception of the under-construction battle station. We also see plenty of iconic Star Wars images, including loads of stormtroopers, Star Destroyers, AT-AT walkers, X-wing fighters and more.

In the Star Wars timeline, Rogue One takes place before Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, which puts it outside the primary cinematic story arc. That arc was moved forward by Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens and continues with 2017's Episode VIII.

Rogue One is scheduled for release in December 2016.