What Does The New 'Rogue One' Poster Tell Us

It always feels like second Christmas whenever a Star Wars convention goes on, with goodies spilling out about our favorite franchise about a long, long time ago in a galaxy far away. And one of our first presents actually has to do with the first Stars Wars stand alone film: a new poster for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has just debuted at Star Wars Celebration Europe 2016, and it shows unexplored territory we've had yet to really see in the Star Wars universe. What does the beachy terrains and ominous shadow of the death star tell us?

Well, it reinforces what we already know so far about the film: that the entire war being waged is done as the Death Star is being completed. As a refresher, it's up to Felicity Jones' character Jyn Erso to steal the Death Star plans for the rebellion and subsequently find a way to destroy it. So we got it, that Alderaan-zapping weapon plays a big part in this movie. But beyond that, there's interesting little things to note about the fight going on below, particularly when it comes to the "who" of "who's fighting" and "where" of "where the hell are they?"

While the Star Wars universe has been shown to have planets with sand before (see: Tatooine, Jakku, and this travesty of a monologue via Anakin Skywalker), there's something uniquely tropical about this particular landscape. Look at those waters. They're nearly a Caribbean blue, with not a gungan in sight. Likewise, I can't exactly recall if we've ever seen palm trees (or whatever their intergalactic equivalent would be) in any Star Wars film before. Maybe the film takes place in part in that galaxy's version of Florida... although, given the context of the film, it may be more like that universe's version of Vietnam.

Another thing worth noting is that the rebel side has a droid in their ranks near the bottom lefthand corner of the poster. This may be the new security droid K-2SO, played by Alan Tudyk. Described as a sort of "Anti-C3PO," K-26O allegedly has a ticky-tacky past, but his current alliances in this poster show him fighting with the good guys. Does he leave the ranks of the Empire and join up with the rebels? It would certainly seem so here.

If nothing else, the new Star Wars film promises the best of both worlds: a backtrack to the glory days of the franchise, and lots of fresh new snippets of a universe beyond the conflicts of Jedi and Sith Lords. Honestly, I couldn't be more excited to see where the series takes us next.

Images: Lucasfilm/Walt Disney Motion Pictures