‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Post Credits Scene to Tease ‘Rogue One’?

The Marvel movies aren’t the first movies to have used post-credits scenes to promote upcoming movies, but they certainly have popularized the trend. Nowadays, even films that barely have a mythology (Hitman: Agent 47??) have post-credits scenes. If a Hitman movie can get a post-credits scene, you better believe that the biggest movie of the year, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, can have one too. But the question is, What will it be? A new report suggests that it will be our first look at the next Star Wars movie.

The Schmoes Know podcast is reporting that the Star Wars: The Force Awakens post-credits scene will actually be our first official look at footage from Gareth Edwards’ Star Wars: Rogue One, which is currently filming in London. This is noteworthy because it won’t be a post-credits scene in the Marvel sense, where it continues some of the action of the film you just watched, while introducing the next chapter. Because Star Wars: Rogue One takes place between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, it’s also taking place about 30 years before the events of The Force Awakens. So, the footage won’t be a continuation of the events of The Force Awakens, simply either a clip or trailer from the next movie.

Interestingly enough, we may have seen a Rogue One trailer or clip earlier, but because of an agreement with Paramount, Lucasfilm and Disney were not allowed to promote the film due to the title similarities with Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation.

What we know about Star Wars: Rogue One now is that it’s about “a band of resistance fighters who unite for a daring mission to steal the Death Star plans.” Edwards has previously said that the film is completely devoid of Jedi and part of the appeal to him was following a group of characters with no magical powers coming together for the greater good. The cast includes Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Riz Ahmed, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Forest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen and Alan Tudyk. And, if rumors are to be believed, we’ll see some familiar faces as well, including the return of Grand Moff Tarkin and Darth Vader, himself.

Star Wars: Rogue One is currently set for a December 16, 2016 release date, almost exactly one year after Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens in theaters.