Rogue One: A Star Wars Story new trailer to air during Rio Olympics

Fans are expecting to see their first glimpse of Darth Vader in the new teaser

Rogue One is set for release this Christmas ahead of Star Wars 8 next year

Star Wars fans will be treated to a new trailer for upcoming spinoff Rogue One: A Star Wars Story during coverage of the Rio Olympics.

The next teaser for the hotly-awaited movie, due out this Christmas starring Felicity Jones, Ben Mendelsohn and Mads Mikkelsen, will premiere on US network NBC sometime on Thursday.

Beady-eyed Twitter users spotted the announcement spot and shared it online before Lucasfilm confirmed it.

New footage was shown to fans at the Star Wars Celebration Europe panel hosted by Gwendoline Christie last month. Darth Vader’s big comeback was revealed in the final shot but was kept for audience eyes only, prompting speculation that this will be what we all eventually see later this week. Expect your first glimpse of Darth Vader as a reflection haloed in a reddish glow, taking in a single breath, but nothing that gives away his role in the film’s narrative.

Directed by Gareth Edwards, Rogue One will proceed the as-yet-untitled Star Wars 8, due next December. The story follows a wayward band of Rebel fighters brought together for one improbable mission: to steal the plans for the Death Star later used in the original trilogy to destroy it. The plot links directly into the first scenes of A New Hope, which see Princess Leia hide the plans in R2-D2 before being captured by the Galactic Empire.

Mon Mothma returns to recruit the rebellious Jyn Erso (Jones, Oscar-nominated for 2015’s The Theory of Everything), while Mendelsohn plays the film’s main antagonist, Director Orson Krennic.

Disney CEO Bob Iger told fans in February that Rogue One is the first of a set of planned stand-alone Star Wars stories. Preproduction on the next one, an untitled Han Solo movie directed by The Lego Movie’s Phil Lord and Chris Miller and starring Alden Ehrenreich in the lead, is already in progress ahead of a May 2018 release.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story arrives in UK cinemas on 16 December.