Does The Final Star Wars Rogue One Trailer Feel Like A Different Movie?

Every time there’s a new Star Wars trailer these days it feels special. It’s tacky, and I kind of hate myself for buying in to the machine, but Star Wars is like a holiday for my imagination. Whenever there’s a new trailer, it feels like I’m looking at the travel broacher for the galaxy far, far away. There’s so many possibilities. So why does the latest trailer for Rogue One have me so vexed?

The new trailer is filled with great Star Warsy moments, don’t get me wrong. The glimpse at protagonist Jyn Erso’s (Felicity Jones) past continues the franchise’s thematic preoccupation with family. Its cinematography feels intentionally reminiscent of A New Hope, with a musical score bleeding with hopefulness. Jyn, now presented as a plucky Luke Skywalker type, even says ‘rebellions are built on hope’, spelling things out for us if we hadn’t figured it out already. The only problem is, I’m not sure this is the same movie Disney have been trying to sell me for the last six months.

Early Trailers

Do me a quick solid and go rewatch the first and second trailers, won’t you? The first teaser sets up Jyn as a petty criminal, a badass who bucks authority surrounded by a world of lurking menace. It even implies Jyn’s character might take a dark turn, with Forest Whitaker’s monologue ending the trailer with the words ‘what will you become?’. The second trailer piles on the hopelessness with a haunting orchestral score, Jyn faced with excessive odds as the Empire piles on the pressure.

Now I wouldn’t describe myself as a definitive authority on the film industry, but I understand why some aspects of a movie are played up in different trailers. This final trailer follows the typical trend of targeting more casual moviegoers. The ones who might just be looking for a fun, family Star Wars adventure over the holidays. But I also know that Rogue One has gone through some reportedly hefty reshoots this summer, even hiring a new composer to score the film as recently as September.

Takeaways

It could be nothing. But if Suicide Squad has taught us anything this year it’s never to trust trailers, especially where there are reshoots involved. Over the summer the reports were that Disney were using the reshoots to lighten the tone of the film. Which isn’t really a problem in itself– this is Star Wars after all, and last time it tried to be all moody and deep we got Revenge of the Sith.

Still, I’m curious. How much of this new cut will resemble the story teased to us in that first trailer six months ago? Have we been robbed of a potentially darker, more tonally ambiguous Star Wars film? Or did Disney really just spend the summer fixing kinks in the original flawed cut of Rogue One?