We’re just about a month away from Disney’s biggest gamble on the Star Wars universe. While odds are good that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will do well at the box office  —  projects this big rarely fail to find their audience  —  there must be a little anxiety in the hearts of Star Wars fans and Disney executives alike. The studio has made some pretty big financial investments in their upcoming slate of standalone Star Wars stories; if Rogue One disappoints in its opening weekend, it could be seen as a shot across the bow of Disney’s future slate.

Then again, with the franchise’s most diverse cast and a slew of eye-popping special effects, the footage from Rogue One has opened doors to new generations of Star Wars fans, not just the hangovers from the original trilogy. The new trailer for Rogue One may not offer us things we haven’t seen before, but it does serve to drive home the themes present in the film. Teamwork. Unity. Perseverance. Rebellion. Most important, it reinforces the idea of the Empire as a truly evil force in the galaxy. We’ve seen the Empire destroy entire worlds, but this will be one of the first times that we see them as an occupying force, a military government who strikes terror into the hearts of their people. And that makes the events that follow all the more important.

Here is the full plot synopsis for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story:

From Lucasfilm comes the first of the Star Wars standalone films, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, an all-new epic adventure. In a time of conflict, a group of unlikely heroes band together on a mission to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Empire’s ultimate weapon of destruction. This key event in the Star Wars timeline brings together ordinary people who choose to do extraordinary things, and in doing so, become part of something greater than themselves.

Disney’s newest Star Wars adventure will hit theaters on December 16, 2016.

More From ScreenCrush