Star Wars' Rogue One trailer pays huge fan service and gives hope with a strong female lead

Less than four months after the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Disney and Lucasfilm have given us a sizeable tease for the first in a long line of spin-off stories - Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Let's be honest, when Disney announced that they were going to be working on spin-off movies to tell the stories previously untold in the Star Wars universe, many fans let out a resounding cry of 'oh dear'.

Many of us still haven't recovered from the prequel trilogy which, let's not tell a lie, disappointed almost EVERY fan of the franchise.

The sense of doubt was made stronger when we learned that the director for said movie would be Gareth Edwards, director of the less than impressive Godzilla movie.

But this was not necessarily the worst thing in the world, and a brighter dawn was on the horizon.

The Force Awakens (TFA) has gave us a re-newed hope for the series, delivering what many fans have called 'an almost perfect Star Wars movie'.

Daisy Ridley and Harrison Ford as Rey and Han Solo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The blend of an old and new cast made for an interesting relationship which made the movie the amazing story it was.

A story using something old and something new meant that a movie of this kind could be made, and made well.

That brings us roundly to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (RO).

According to the IMDB profile, the premise of the film tales place before the events of A New Hope (ANH).

"Following the foundation of the Galactic Empire, a wayward band of Rebel fighters comes together to carry out a desperate mission: to steal the plans for the Death Star before it can be used to enforce the Emperor's rule."

Again, the feeling of something old...

The film has an amazing ensemble of cast such as Felicity Jones, Forest Whitaker, Diego Luna, Mads Mikkelsen and Alan Tudyk, which certainly makes it one of the most diverse casts to date.

And there's the something new.

We got our first teaser for Rogue One, and it was in a word - glorious!

This, in our opinion, was a very strong introduction, to what looks like an amazing story that has gone untold for over 35 years.

There was a hugely familiar sense and feeling watching the clips - a sort of throw back to the imagery and sounds of the original movies which first gave us our love of adventures in space.

So let's take a look at some of the things that has gotten us on the edge of our seats with excitement for this VERY DIFFERENT Star Wars story.

The opening gives us our first look at Jyn Erso, played by Felicity Jones, which marks the second time since the takeover that Disney has chosen a very strong female lead.

Like TFA the Disney are playing their cards very close to their chests, but from what we can gather, Jyn is a member of the Rebel Alliance.

Although by this image she seems to be a prisoner

A very nice throwback location as well as she seems to be in the temple on Yavin IV being used as a base by the Rebels.

It's also very obvious she is well able to handle herself in a fight.

It's here we get our first look at the familiar character of Mon Mothma (although this time played by Irish born actress Geneivive O'Reilly) a leader in the Rebel Alliance, who first appeared in Return of the Jedi (ROTJ)

Following the Lucasfilm shimmer which gets every Star Wars fan ridiculously excited, we see an image that put our hearts in our mouth.

No, not the star destroyer, look behind that.

It's the DEATH STAR!

This single shot may have made us squeal - but we'll never tell.

As we compose ourselves we are given our first look at, who seems to be, the villain of this story.

A yet uknown charcter played by Ben Mendelsohn, but we want to know who it could be?

Is he just an Imperial Grand Admiral as many suspect? Or could be he be, as other theorys suggest Agent Kallus who appears in the Star Wars Rebels TV show?

Or to stretch the imagination more...

Could this be Grand Moff Tarkin? Since the inception of the film there were rumours that he would be featuring in it and that Edwards would be using computer generated footage of Peter Cushing who first played the chracter in ANH.

The Stormtroopers in RO are just one more piece of the pie that was a gratuitous fan service with this trailer.

The old uniforms, worn by them in the original trilogy, as well as their unmatched ability to get their arses kicked - this time by Donnie Yen - brought warm feelings to our hearts.

We are also given a look at the (as of yet un-named) character played by Forrest Whitaker.

And what's up with that dark stormtrooper? We got very excited when we first saw Captain Phasma, played by Gwendoline Christie in TFA, purely because she looks so different to what we were used to.

And look, the AT-ATs are back, who can't be excited about that? Get your harpoons and tow cables and go for the legs!

Lots of new stuff, coupled with some of the old familiars combined to make, what we think, was an exciting trailer for a very different look at the Star Wars universe.

Should we be skepitcal about it? Sure, we have been dissapointed in the past.

Should we be excited for it? Absolutely!

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is slated to hit cinemas on December 16.