‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ Debuts New Footage in This Celebration Sizzle Reel

You may recall that J.J. Abrams debuted a sizzle reel for The Force Awakens at last year’s Comic-Con, which featured new footage and some great behind-the-scenes material — this sizzle reel for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is pretty similar. Instead of debuting a new trailer for the upcoming standalone / prequel story, director Gareth Edwards offered this fantastic sneak peek at the film during the Rogue One panel at Star Wars Celebration.

In the video above, you can see plenty of new footage from Rogue One, and although it’s not a full-length trailer (we’ll probably get one of those soon), there’s tons of good stuff here. The cast and crew express the usual excitement and awe of working on a Star Wars film, and although this one is a bit different in tone and style from the core franchise, it’s directly connected to the series via the story of a young rebel (Felicity Jones) who gathers a ragtag crew to steal the plans to the Death Star.

Rogue One takes place before the events of A New Hope, and will feature an appearance from iconic Star Wars villain Darth Vader (with James Earl Jones returning to voice the famous character). But, as you can see in the video, he’s not the only familiar face we’ll encounter — Warwick Davis, who played Wicket the Ewok in the original trilogy, is returning as well, which is pretty exciting. Well, it’s exciting if you’re like me and you love Ewoks.

The film is currently undergoing reshoots, which have been the source of numerous rumors in recent months. But if this sizzle reel is any indication, then it looks like Edwards’ film is still very much the war / heist movie we were promised. Here are a few GIFs from the trailer:

Rogue One also stars Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed, Ben Mendelsohn, Mads Mikkelsen, Donnie Yen, Forest Whitaker and Alan Tudyk, and hits theaters on December 16.

Check Out a Gallery of Incredible Original Star Wars Concept Art