Now that it’s been confirmed that Admiral Thrawn will return to the Star Wars canon on the third season of Rebels, those pesky theories that Ben Mendelsohn will be portraying him in some sort of mystery box conspiracy in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story can be put to rest. Mendelsohn doesn’t show up in the new Rogue One TV spot that dropped today, which chooses to focus on the heroes.
Felicity Jones’ clunky “This is a rebellion isn’t it? I rebel” line is still there, but Forest Whitaker’s impassioned speech asking, “if you continue to fight, what will you become” appears to sits nicely aside “do or do not, there is no try.” There’s not a whole lot of new footage in the commercial (there is a new tagline, “Hope begins with rebellion”) but a quick shot of an Imperial Stormtrooper getting his ass handed to him by Donnie Yen’s presumably Zaitochi-influenced Chirrut Imwe and the presence of death squad troopers lend credence to the rumors that Rogue One will be unlike any previous Star Wars film. Hopefully it retains the sense of adventure and “delight” that Lawrence Kasdan explained was the key to The Force Awakens.
Rogue One blasts into theaters December 16.