'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' release date, news and updates: New featurette showcases more BTS footage

Gareth Edwards' "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" is turning out to be one of the most anticipated movies to come out this year, and Lucasfilm has decided to release a featurette that shows a lot of behind-the-scenes work on the movie as well as new snippets from the film itself.

The clip runs for about two minutes, and it features comments from director Edwards, and other stars in the show like Diego Luna (Captain Cassian Andor) and Felicity Jones (Jyn Erso). Edwards talks about how he had such an exciting experience working on the movie and he describes it as being like a kid playing with life-sized "Star Wars" toys. He also goes on to describe "Rogue One" as an ensemble movie but at the heart of it is a strong female protagonist, Jyn Erso.

The clip also gives new insight on some scenes in the movie. One brief part compares a scene from the original "Star Wars" where a rebel soldier is monitoring the arrival of ships on Yavin IV. The movie recreated the scene and it even looks like the original, but this time it was shot from a different angle.

There's also a look at the kind of weapons Erso will use in her fight against the Empire. Aside from the traditional blaster, she also looks to be wielding a retractable tonfa baton. There's also a humorous clip of K-2SO (Alan Tudyk) being told to keep quiet while Cassian and Jyn are sneaking around in Imperial garb.

December looks to be another exciting time for "Star Wars" fans as "Star Wars Battlefront" is also planning to release the "Scarif" expansion roughly the same time as the movie. The DLC will be taking players into the tropical world of the same name which will be introduced in "Rogue One."

"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" is set for release on Friday, Dec. 16.