By now, you'll have seen the all-new, first-look at the Rogue One trailer that landed online a few hours ago.

To say we're excited is an understatement. What makes Rogue One so interesting is that it's not about The Force and it's not about Jedi - it's a dirty, grimy, gritty look at Star Wars, something that's been eagerly awaited for quite some time. In fact, when you think back to how clean and clinical the prequels were compared to this, it's really something.

So, what do we know about Rogue One so far? Not a lot, really. Credit to them, the trailer doesn't give much in terms of story other than the broad strokes - but that's not going to stop uber-nerds (read: us) speculating and extrapolating just about everything we can from the trailer.

With that in mind, here's our shot-by-shot analysis...

 

So now we have a name to Felicity Jones' character - Jyn Erso. That's a Rebel soldier beside her so we're guessing she gets picked up by the Rebels for...

 

...a laundry list of crimes, including stolen Imperial documents - is she some sort of smuggler, perhaps?

 

That's Diego Luna. No word yet on who he'll be playing, however rumours suggest he's playing Biggs Darklighter - a character from A New Hope that briefly pops up towards the end and was friends with Luke Skywalker back on Tattooine. They've both that same moustache and general look, but again, nothing confirmed.

 

"On your own from the age of fifteen..." So, the early rumour is - and this is by no means confirmed - is that Felicity Jones' character is, in fact, Rey's mother. Remember that this film is set before The Force Awakens and before A New Hope. You also see Felicity Jones knocking the snot out of a Stormtrooper in a very familiar way AND they both could pass as related to one another.

 

Practical explosions and real stuntmen. That's very cool. Really good to see that CGI is being used sparingly and in-camera effects are making a comeback.

 

That's Irish-born actress Geneieve O'Reilly as Mon Mothma. She was cast in Revenge of the Sith, however her scenes were cut from the film. She's pretty spot-on as a younger version of Caroline Blakiston, who played the original Mon Mothma back in 1983 for Return of the Jedi. SIDE NOTE: She's now in Poldark as Aunt Agatha.

 

"We've got a mission for you..." The whole film centres around the Rebel plot to see the schematics and blueprints for the first Death Star. As the leader of the commando squad, she's got to try and smuggle the plans out and get them to the Rebellion leaders.

 

That's an Imperial Star Destroyer, looking all cool and shit.

 

LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT THING. That big dish being lowered into the Death Star tells us that it's already a good chunk of the way along. As the voiceover says, the Death Star is about to do a weapons test - most likely on an actual planet.

 

That's Alistair Petrie, who was also in the BBC's Night Manager. Interesting how they're using a lot of British actors. Back in the original Star Wars, Lucas made a specific point of using classical British actors to play Imperials and Californian actors to play Rebel Alliance characters. Not so much here, eh?

 

That's Ben Mendelsohn as the big baddie. Uber-fans will know that a white uniform like the one he's wearing signifies the rank of Grand Admiral. The old Expanded Universe had it that almost all of the Grand Admirals - there were thirteen of them, handpicked by the Emperor, throughout the entire galaxy - all died when the first Death Star was destroyed. The only one who was left behind was Grand Admiral Thrawn. Now, we know that the Expanded Universe has since been disavowed by Lucasfilm because, well, it's a mess. However, seeing Ben Mendelsohn in that uniform tells us that they're not throwing out the whole of the Expanded Universe. WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

 

Just think. If this was a prequel, those Stormtroopers would all be CGI'd. No, really.

 

That's our first look at Forest Whitaker, limping along. What's up with that armour he's wearing? Looks like something from Fallout.

 

Those are Shadowtroopers, who are used for more intimidation than anything else. They're the guys who set stuff on fire and, y'know, are generally scary mass-murderer types.

 

What's really apparent from the trailer is that things aren't going well for the Rebel Alliance. AT ALL. X-wing pilots being led away in cuffs, beaten and tattered. It's really interesting to see a much more gritty version of Star Wars.

 

By our guess, that's Diego Luna running with Felicity Jones and we'd bet decent money they're on the Death Star itself. That robot behind them seems to be in every other scene. Could that be Alan Tudyk's character? Or maybe Mads Mikkelsen? Neither of those two turned up in the trailer, which is pretty interesting.

 

That's Donnie Yen, getting ready to knock twelve shades of Bantha fodder out of these guys.

 

Another shot of the Shadowtroopers. Noticed something so far? Almost no space battles whatsoever and not a sign of a lightsaber. Director Gareth Edwards said that the film is closer to a straight war movie than anything else. He even used the same cinematographer that worked on Zero Dark Thirty.

 

More explosions. All those palm trees keep cropping up. Could that be where they're test-firing the Death Star? We saw jungles in that thirty-second teaser that leaked from Star Wars Celebration.

 

Another shot of Grand Admiral Ben Mendelsohn striding confidently through a battlefield of dead Stormtroopers.

 

So, who's that in the bacta chamber? Our guess is it's Darth Vader. Who's that in the hood? Nobody's sure. Could be that it's the Emperor. Could be an Inquisitor. Could even be Ben Mendelsohn. Nobody's sure. Those two red guys are Royal Guards, who are sworn to personally protect the Emperor with their lives. So we're guessing he's somewhere in this scene.

 

Forest Whitaker getting even more animated now and those sirens are getting even louder. There's a real sense of tension and dread in this trailer, something we haven't seen in any Star Wars trailer. Well, maybe since the trailer for Attack of the Clones.

 

That's Chinese actor Wen Jiang playing one of the Rebel commandos.

 

That's an AT-AT and that looks f***ing awesome, to be honest. Rogue One is all about the ground war and seeing these gigantic monsters back on the screen again is pretty special.

 

"What will you become?" That's an interesting note to leave the trailer one, the suggestion that maybe Felicity Jones' character isn't all that selfless and that she may even be a double-agent for the Empire. That outfit she's wearing is that of a TIE Fighter pilot, so maybe it's her escape plan to get off the Death Star? Who knows, maybe she is a double-agent?

 

So, thoughts? That's a very solid trailer and a very interesting aspect of it is that we know almost next nothing other than the fact that A) it's about the Death Star and B) there's bad stuff going down in the Empire. The amount of violence we saw, whether it's the dead Stormtroopers, the action sequences, is also interesting. Again, you have to remember that we haven't see a Star Wars film like this that has this amount of dirt all over it.

Adult fans have been crying out for a more mature Star Wars film for years and this might just be it. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is scheduled for release on December 16th, 2016.