Well some more info has come out in the last couple days regarding this movie, and people were saying we should have a separate thread for it than the Episode VIII thread before, so here it is. Here's the teaser trailer from a couple months ago and a link to the Episode VIII thread too.

First, more information on the characters. I think I like Donnie Yen's character best from those descriptions, it's interesting to see how the Jedi influence the galaxy from an outside perspective (something they also talked about in KotOR II, another reason I like that game). That said, Alan Tudyk's droid character sounds neat too.

Second, Darth Vader is also confirmed to be in the movie. They've done a good job with him in Star Wars: Rebels and the recent comics, so hopefully it can help rinse the taste of Hayden Christenson out of the general audience's mouths.

 

Woooo Saw Guerrera. Loved that Clone Wars arc, even with the insipid Ahsoka love triangle thing.

 

I feel really stupid that I didn't think of him while wondering who the hell Forrest Whittaker was playing.

I think it's awesome how the cartoons are starting to cross over into the main canon lore - before, with all the expanded universe fuckery, there would have been no chance of this ever happening. Now you have a Clone Wars character crossing into Rogue One, you have the Rebels crew landing on one of the iconic places from KOTOR, and I'm sure we'll see more of the book and animated characters the farther we go down this road. Love it all.

 

Yeah, I appreciate the effort towards making the universe a little more interdependent. Even if Forrest Whittaker doesn't look like his TCW version much at all :|.

 

Am I one of the few people who aren't offended by Christensen's existence? Now I'm not saying that that Anakin's portrayal was great in the prequels, but are you really going to lay the blame at his feet? All the shitty dialogue was given to him by Lucas himself, did you expect a 19 year old to throw his weight around to try and impose his idea's onto his character? People seem to forget that even good actors gave rather lacklustre performances.

I actually wouldn't mind having Christensen underneath the suit, I think it would be quite fine actually, preferable even.

On another note, I'm really excited for this movie. For the entire Star Wars franchise we haven't really seen a proper war. This looks to be the first instalment to capture the real grit of war. Sure they've been skirmishes but nothing quite on the scale of what this looks like it's panning out to be. Very optimistic for Rogue One.

 

Yeah, no actor could've saved stuff like the "I hate sand, but I love you because you're not like sand" 'romantic' dialogue Christensen had to spit out. When Liam Neeson and Samuel L Jackson are also giving flat, unimpressive performances, the problem isn't the actors.

 

I have no problem with Anakin or his actor, however I have to disagree you with you on the war front. After the illogical, boring, utterly idiotic and lacking any original thought hash that were the military scenes in the last Star Wars movie I am very sceptical when it comes to Rogue One...

 

No, I agree with you. Lucas got wooden performances out of Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, and Samuel L. Jackson. It's not Christiansen's fault.

On the topic of Rogue One, I'm still not sure what I think of it. I heard that they were doing reshoots because "it feels too much like a war movie," which if that's the case, it bodes poorly for the movie. It is supposed to feel like a war movie. I'm also worried about how it falls into existing canon--I'm wondering if it fits nicely, or if it obliterates it (like the Halo: Reach game did).

 

I'm not offended by his existence. I'm just saying that for some people Anakin's portrayal in the Prequels -- whether it's his fault or Lucas' -- somewhat ruined Darth Vader for them, and I'm hoping that showing Vader in his prime here can make up for it to them.

Vader was pretty pissed off in the beginning of ANH, so personally I want to see him pull a one-man massacre or something by the end of this one.

I wouldn't mind if he got a scene for a maskless Vader at some point, in his little decontamination pod maybe or like the end of the last season of Rebels. But they should have a big guy (for you) wearing the suit around for most scenes, like David Prowse used to.

According to this, there shouldn't be anything to worry about on that front.

It also mentions there might not be an opening crawl, to differentiate it from the Episodes. Not a bad idea, in my opinion.

 

I'm happy Donnie Yen and his fighting skills are in the movie but I'm worried his character is going to a disappointing one-dimensional cardboard cutout. So far all we've seen him do is swing a staff around, and if the character information is correct he seems to be checking all the boxes for some established stereotypes.

Hopefully I'm wrong and the movie manages to avoid/subvert these, but I'm not terribly confident. At least the action scenes should be good.

 

In my opinion, Darth Vader shouldn't become too much of an actual character in Rogue One.

In ANH, he was this evil robotic monster thing that you knew absolutely nothing about, making him all that more terrifying. Sure, now the audience is coming into it with full knowledge of the rest of the Star Wars franchise, but for a story that is based around a characters who aren't all that important in the big scheme of themes, Darth Vader needs to be that invincible, terrifying force of nature and not an actual character. Appears in the movie just to massacre some rebels.

Either way, super pumped for this. The trailer has me more excited for this than The Force Awakens.

 

You're right, but mainly because we don't need to show any character development for Vader. He should be the imposing figure that uses his reputation to incite fear. We've had six movies and a couple of TV shows, we know where he is at. The focus of the audience and script shouldn't be on Vader but on the Rebels.

 

Yep. So I've seen a handful of the Rebels TV show. Vader should be the rarely appears often mentioned specter of cthulu horror.

 

I'd give you a thumbs up if I could

 

First time I saw the trailer, two words ruined it: "I rebel."

Thank you, movie, for that truly awful characterization shortcut on your main heroine. It saved me a lot of time, and the price of admission.

 

The teaser reel from the Star Wars Celebration. Mix of behind the scenes and movie footage.

 

New trailer is awesome I can't even.

 

You didn't immediately get the feeling that you might've just seen too much from that trailer? I've personally come to loathe trailers, practically no one knows how to make a proper trailer without showing a summary of the film, but it was pretty damn good though...

 

Eh, not really. Brief vague intros to each char's role. Lots of action. Antagonists identified as antagonists. I suppose you can infer the barebones plot from this, but that would only come off as new and spoilery if you haven't been following along with other releases.

 

Nah, just enough Dath Vader.