By now we’ve all seen the new trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. (Wait, you haven’t? Take care of that right now.) And within that trailer there is a lot of new footage to pore over—Jyn’s father Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen)! Director Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) actually talking to Darth Vader!—but there's one bit that is easy to get excited about, yet hard to understand: that strange shape in the sand of what looks like a hooded Jedi holding a lightsaber.
The image, which shows up about 40 seconds into the new trailer, appears as part of an epic overhead shot of a tiny ship making its way across a desert landscape. Despite being surrounded by sand, the figure itself is pretty undeniable—yet where it's located and why it's there is a mystery. But that doesn't mean we can't make some educated guesses about what's going on here.
First up, the location. That's probably Jedha. The desert moon is the home world of "warrior monk" Chirrut Imwe (Donnie Yen), his friend Baze Malbuz (Jian Wen), and pilot Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed), who all join the Rebel cause. It’s also where Rebel veteran Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) leads a band of extremists opposing the occupation. Earlier this year, the packaging for one of Hasbro's figures for Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) revealed that the toy's costuming was from a sequence in the film that took place on Jedha. And directorhas said the place is something like Mecca or Jerusalem for those who believe in the Force: a religious pilgrimage site that should be visited at some point during one’s lifetime. So the fact that anyone would be traveling to/from there in this trailer seems pretty likely.
But why? That there is a slightly-hidden image of what looks like a Jedi is one thing. The fact that it's an overturned (and seemingly discarded and/or damaged) statue on hallowed ground is another—and it might hold the key to a big chunk of the film's plot. For a while now fans have speculated that the Empire took over Jedha in Rogue One because they were searching for kyber crystals—the Force-atuned minerals that Jedis use to create lightsabers—in order to power the planet-destroying main weapon on the Death Star. Mostly those theories were just guesswork, but now that overhead shot of the Jedi statue lends some legitimacy to why Jedha would be so valuable to the diminishing numbers of Force worshippers and to the Empire seeking to snuff out the ancient religion using the very material that creates the iconic weapon the Rebels are looking to dismantle.
Or it could all just be a visual Easter egg to tease the Star Wars faithful looking for Jedi anywhere they can find them. We'll know for sure when Rogue One hits theaters Dec. 16.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC9abcLLQpI
