It’s the time of the year when plenty of people are counting down the days until Christmas, but if you are reading this there is a very good chance you are probably counting down the days to a different kind of holiday: the December 16th release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. We are all excited to spend that joyous day of nerd celebration with some of the best looking creatures to ever come out of the galaxy far, far away.
Lucasfilm has released a short featurette, with commentary from both the movie’s director Gareth Edwards (who nerds out over these costumes just the way we would) and its creature effects supervisor Neal Scanlan, highlighting a few of the many awesome and incredibly lifelike practical effects creatures that we will come across while trying to steal the plans to the Death Star. If you weren’t already excited to see this movie (uh, why?) here are two words to help push you over the edge: space monkey.
But that’s just one of the creatures shown here, which range from the giant and furry to the small and obese. Strange and incredible looking creatures have been a vital part of making the Star Wars universe so immersive ever since Luke and Obi-Wan entered the Mos Eisley Cantina. It looks like Rogue One isn’t just committed to continuing that legacy, it might end up having the best and most vivid-looking creatures of them all.
(And for those of you that can’t watch a video at work, don’t worry, you can see all of the creatures from the featurette in our gallery below.)
Star Wars also released another new TV spot for the movie, appropriately titled “Worth It,” because it certainly is. Once again, Disney and Lucasfilm are playing up the hope and optimism that drive Jyn Erso and her band of rebels on their mission. Somehow, every time we see one of these ads lately, someone seems to be chopping up onions nearby.
In recent weeks the ads for the movie have focused less on the action of the film and more on its inherent hopefulness, revolving around the themes of unity and coming together to do tangible good in the world, even at great personal risk. Whether this was the plan all along or a promotional shift that came about as a response to real world events, we’re not sure. All we know is we keep getting teary-eyed at all of these commercials about very different people working with one another and believing things can get better.
If we’re already getting this worked up over 30-second ads, what is this film going to do to us when we actually see it? Especially since we just know it is going to include some (if not all) of them making the ultimate sacrifice in the name of the Rebellion.
And what if something happens to the space monkey? There’s only so much we can take.
But what did you think of these two videos? Fly into our comments section below and tells us your thoughts.
Images: Lucasfilm
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