New Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Trailer Released Online

The third trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was released today, following its premiere on ABC's Good Morning America. The trailer followed the previous two teaser trailers, which focused largely on Jyn Erso, played by Felicity Jones. As the young newly conscripted member of the Rebel Alliance, she also has to lead a team of disparate characters as they gather together for a critical mission: stealing the plans to the Empire's new secret weapon: The Death Star.

The first trailer's big reveal was the Death Star itself, while the second's major scene featured Darth Vader. This trailer shows off more of the core story, and finally reveals Mads Mikkelsen as Galen Erso, Jyn's father and the designer behind the Death Star's terrifying, planet-destroying weapon.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is the first of the new standalone films that exist outside the core "Skywalker Saga" of the films that have an episode number attached. The movie was born of a single line in the opening crawl of the first Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, describing the Rebel Alliance's first major victory and the theft of the Death Star plans. Starring Jones as Jyn Erso, the film also brings together Riz Ahmed as Bodhi Rook, Forest Whitaker as Saw Gerrera (who first appeared on the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars), Diego Luna as Captain Cassian Andor, Donnie Yen as Chirrut Imwe, and Alan Tudyk as the attitude-filled droid K-2SO. The team will unite atainst Director Orson Krennic, played by Ben Mendelsohn, who is seeking to complete the terrible weapon, all with Darth Vader (voiced again by James Earl Jones) looming in the background.

The Star Wars Story movie line that launches with this film will release in even years, with episodes releasing in odd years, for the next several. The next planned film in the series is an as-yet-untitled Han Solo movie in 2018, coming after the release of Star Wars: Episode VIII in December 2017.

NEXT: Rouge One's Darth Vader Moment Analyzed

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, directed by Gareth Edwards, hits theaters December 16, 2016.