What the Star Wars Celebration poster wants you to know about 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story'

IN advance of London's European Star Wars fan convention, a promotional poster blends character art from Star Wars: A Force Awakens, this year's upcoming Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and, tantalisingly, perhaps even Star Wars Episode VIII.
It's the event's US iterations which have become more well known, aided by the fact that 2015's Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim, California, debuted the second teaser for a hugely anticipated Star Wars: The Force Awakens due out the same year.
But the Star Wars Celebration train has been on something of a world tour since 2007, when Celebration Europe first took place in London; since then, it's added Japan and Germany to an international itinerary while settling on Orlando, Florida as a more regular North American stop-off.
Celebration Europe III takes place July 15-17 at the ExCeL center in London and, in advance of the three-day fan expo, key art for the gathering has been revealed by Disney and through Lucasfilm's official, weekly "Star Wars Show" (youtu.be/-IVW0aIO2Lg).
Characters seen in Star Wars: The Force Awakens fill the top half of the composite artwork, while others seen in the first trailer for Rogue One (youtu.be/Wji-BZ0oCwg) occupy the bottom half.
The poster follows an accidentally leaked spread of text and illustrations from the official visual story guide for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story mid-May.
That had provided extra background information not only on the characters shown in the Rogue One trailer, but also on others yet to be discovered via official channels.
It's not known yet whether Disney and Lucasfilm planned to unveil each of those characters, vehicles and locations before the movie's arrival, but this Star Wars Celebration reveal provides some extra detail.
The Stormtrooper lexicon is expanding, with the Star Wars Show naming the sheet's black-armored soldiers as Death Troopers, alongside an armor-and-cloth clad infantry type called the Shoretrooper.
There's also a better look at the new AT-ACT, a four-legged piece of mobile armor based on the iconic AT-ATs first seen in 1980's Star Wars: Episode V.
The Star Wars Show describes the images as featuring the cast of The Force Awakens and that of Rogue One, but one line of thinking – based on secretive reports from the set of 2017's franchise entry – says that the top half is actually just as much a reference to Star Wars: Episode VIII as to its 2015 predecessor. — AFP Relaxnews