Rogue One Teaser Trailer Premiered at Celebration!
Jondee here on Kashyyyk,
This is a re:tro of an article posted on April 19, 2015, photos were not allowed at the panels, it will be a two-parter: The highlight of the day was the panel, “Conversations with Gareth Edwards & Josh Trank.” Pablo Hidalgo, Lucasfilm Brand Communications Manager was the host of the panel, and noted all of the teaser trailer for Force Awakens, Rebels season 2, and Battlefront, saying, “This is an amazing time to be a Star Wars fan and that’s just 2015.” He also delivered the bad news that Josh Trank would not be appearing at the panel. Josh Trank went on Twitter hours after the panel, “Hey all. So, so, so sad to have missed today. Worst flu of my life. I hear it went beautifully with Gareth. Here’s to next year.” Hidalgo then brought on stage Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm, and Kiri Hart, vice president of development and head of the Lucasfilm Story Group. Kennedy explained about bringing on Kiri Hart to Lucasfilm, “I had no idea what an insane Star Wars fan she was.” Hidalgo noted that the new films were called stand-alones, spin-offs, or origin stories. Kennedy talked about the films, “It was really George’s idea, not only picking up the saga again, which he never envisioned he would do, but he was also really interested in exploring all the stories that might exist inside the universe.”
Hart explained about the concept of the films, “We really wanted freedom to do some films that would be able to stand on their own, tell unique stories that can vary in scale, vary in genre, and introduce new characters and new places, but still feel like Star Wars, and still be Star Wars.” She added, “We’re going to call them Anthology films.” This was met by applause from the audience. Next, Hidalgo introduced Gareth Edwards, the director of Monsters (2010) and Godzilla (2014) with the Star Wars Anthology film, his third movie. Edwards said, “I’m really quite nervous right now. It’s a bit intimidating.” He pointed out that he was in the audience when the Force Awakens trailer was shown in the Arena. Edwards had not seen it until then and continued, “It started and I can feel the tears going.” He was sitting with producers of his movie and held off the tears. Then he added, “I’m not crying, as soon as Han as said that, we’re hired, this tear came down.” Hidalgo teased the footage from the new film to the applause of the audience. Edwards said, “It doesn’t work like that. It’s not like the more you scream, the more footage gets generated.”
Gareth Edwards then explained that they don’t start filming until the summer. Then, he noted, “There might be something.” The lights went down. There is a sound of wind howling while the screen is dark. A thumping sound. Then the screen showed “December 2016.” A shot of a jungle ravine while Sir Alec Guinness’ narration is heard, “For over a thousand generations”, a flock of bird-like creatures passes under the camera, another thump, “the Jedi Knights were guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic”, the scream of TIE fighter engines is heard, then a TIE fighter is seen flying past the right side of the ravine, “before the dark times, before the Empire”, we clear the ravine, the music swells up, and a cluster of mountains are seen. There’s also a cloudy form on the right which resolves to the disk of the super laser of the first Death Star. Then, the title goes up “Star Wars: Rogue One – Anthology”, there is radio chatter of soldiers in combat before it ends. The audience burst into applause and the trailer was shown again. Edwards showed a teaser trailer for Godzilla at Comic Con 2013 so there is precedent, but with no rumors about the Rogue One teaser, this was a shock.
