By Phil de Semlyen | Posted 22 Aug 2016

Empire’s newest cover star is the latest kickass Star Wars heroine, Jyn Erso. The cover story boasts incredible access to the movie, accompanied by plenty of exclusive images, including this one of Felicity Jones’ rogue trooper on the desert moon of Jedha. To paraphrase Bogie, of all the Jyn joints in all the worlds, the Empire chose this one to unleash AT-ATs on…

Alongside her in the still are tough-nut droid K-2SO (performance-captured by Alan Tudyk) – and Captain Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), a combat-hardened Rebel intel officer. As Jones explains in Empire, the first anthology movie in the canon promises to deviate a little from the established visual grammar of the franchise. “It’s very much a boots-on-the-ground perspective of the Star Wars universe,” she says. “The idea is that it feels as though you’re actually there. You’re in amongst it."

“It is mucky, it is grimy, you’re in the trenches,” adds her co-star Riz Ahmed of the look and feel Monsters and Godzilla director Gareth Edwards has gone for. “To bring that kind of vérité feel to this world, that kind of documentary realism, is really exciting.” It’s shaping up to be Star Wars by way of The Battle Of Algiers – and is all the more thrilling a prospect for that.

Pick up the new Empire from Thursday, 25 August from all good and Sith newsagents for much more Rogue One goodness – or subscribe here to get hold of the digital version.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is out on December 16. Find Everything You Need To Know About Rogue One right here.