Jedi News reader Enrique Maddox was fortunate enough to be a part of the crowd who saw a selection of scenes from Rogue One. Bear in mind there may be spoilerific elements to this post, so proceed with caution if you aim to remain spoiler free. And all opinions belong to Enrique and not Jedi News.

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Hello Jedi News! So I was very fortunate to be part of the crowd who watched the first 25 minutes and a couple of other scenes from the new film Rogue One at the Mexico City Presentation and Fan Event. Diego Luna, Felicity Jones and director Gareth Edwards were all in attendance and prior to the screening we were able to ask questions to the cast and director. They talked about how they prepared physically and emotionally to be part of this huge project, the impact Star Wars has had in their lives and about their excitement for fans to see their work. Gareth also hinted that Vader’s cameo in the film is very small, but that’s about it. The people who got to ask questions were all given Star Wars toys and figures (me included, got a Scarif Trooper figure). They also showed us several trailers but nothing we haven’t seen so far. Now, here’s what they showed us from the actual film… (No major spoilers, but I am gonna try to go in detail about the format of the film and the beginning of the movie).

The movie starts with the “a long time ago…” screen and then we go straight to space and Krennic’s ship flying through some rings (kind of like Saturn’s). It’s beautiful. Next we see Jyn Erso’s family in a rush trying to escape before the Empire ship arrives. They know they’re on their way to capture them. They pack all their stuff and Jyn and her mom escape while her dad goes to confront Krennic. Jyn’s mom gives her a necklace and tells her that the Force will protect her or something along those lines. She tells her to hide in their secret place and little Jyn runs for her life. Back to Krennic, he says to Jyn’s father that they want him to work for them since it’s important for the galaxy’s safety and he refuses. He tells them his wife is dead (obviously not true) and he doesn’t want to do it. At that moment Jyn’s mom comes back with a hidden gun and tries to shoot Krennic and she gets shot. Krennic only gets his shoulder wounded. Jyn’s dad is captured and taken to the ship while Krennic orders the Death Troopers to search for the girl. Jyn hides in a tiny bunker and waits for them to leave. Suddenly, the bunker door opens and it’s Saw Gerrera. He rescues little Jyn Erso. End of scene. ROGUE ONE title (SW font, but it’s hollow) with new (very beautiful) theme music.

We also watched a battle scene where Jyn rescues a little girl from explosions and hands her to her mom, Chirrut kills all the troopers with his blind ninja skills and then Baze saves his ass when the troopers outnumber him. Something I found interesting is that they mention the Whills and how Chirrut is one of them or something like that (can’t remember exactly what they said, but they are mentioned when Jyn asks Cassian about Chirrut) Also K-2SO is pretty funny in the couple of scenes we saw. There was also a scene were Cassian is introduced where he is trying to escape from troopers in this huge city (very reminiscent of the prequel films). They also showed the scene where Jyn is rescued from some sort of prison by the rebels commanded by Cassian and they tell her that they need her help to contact Saw Gerrera. Bail Organa makes a brief appearance here.

Again, they showed us several clips from different parts of the film but no major plot point scenes were shown. It looks very different from what we are used to, but yet somehow it still feels like Star Wars. There is no crawl, no transition wipes, there is new music, every time we go to a new planet we get the location in the corner of the screen in a new font, and a couple of other changes made to the format.

Also, Jyn’s character is actually a lot more likeable than I expected and it’s very different from Rey’s. While Rey’s character is very naïve and very girl-next door, Jyn is a very smart, tough girl who has endured so much and it shows. She has this IDGAF attitude and a very strong personality but at the same time she has a good heart.

Loved the footage we got to see and I can’t wait for the film. I’m sure SW fans will love it as much as I did.