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Rogue One's international trailer gives us another look at its spooky Death troopers

Rogue One's international trailer gives us another look at its spooky Death troopers

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Star Wars spinoff Rogue One has another new trailer — kind of. The international teaser uploaded today features much of the same footage used in last week's trailer, but while we've already performed a detailed breakdown of that clip, this new trailer adds a few key lines and extra shots that bear talking about. Expect a few potential spoilers below.

It explains why Jyn Erso is connected to this mission

Key among these new additions is the mention of Jyn Erso's father. Rebel captain Cassian Andor specifies that the tip-off about the Empire's superweapon comes from the young Jyn's dad, a character called Galen Erso that we know will be played by Mads Mikkelsen, thanks to a slip of the actor's tongue earlier this year. Jyn seems capable and determined, but it wasn't clear quite why she'd been plucked off the street to undergo this dangerous mission when the Rebellion has no shortage of special agents on hand. The familial connection ties her more concretely to the story, and opens up questions about how she'll get past the (presumably) tough security around the Death Star.

It's still not clear how willing a participant Galen Erso is in the Rebellion though: Mon Mothma specifies that the message was intercepted, rather than sent directly to the insurgency. Was this a deliberate ploy by a disillusioned official? The actions of a Rebel double agent? Or just bad cybersecurity practices by a senior Imperial officer? (Hey, we all do it.) Mikkelsen has hinted that his character isn't a stone-cold villain, however, suggesting he may be a scientist appalled by the scale of destruction the Death Star is capable of. There's precedent for this kind of Oppenheimer-ish regret in Star Wars canons both old and new: most notably, Omwati scientist Qwi Xux tried to make amends for her part in building the Empire's superweapons, after being convinced that they would be used for benign purposes.

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The international trailer also gives us another look at Rogue One's black-clad Death troopers. The mysterious soldiers don't give much away in the footage, shown striding purposefully across a hillside, but one thing we can assume — they're more sensible than their Stormtrooper brethren. Where the rank-and-file troops of the Empire wear gleaming white, Death troopers dress in spooky black armor, giving them at least some semblance of basic camouflage. They're reportedly part of the Empire's military intelligence division, too, suggesting that they'll be relentless and canny opponents for Jyn Erso and her squad of rebels, rather than faceless goons for them to wade through on their way to success. Maybe they'll actually be able to hit the side of a Sandcrawler from 20 paces, too, unlike most Stormtroopers.


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