We are officially less than a month away from the release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Last year, around this time, we were all beyond thrilled at the idea of Star Wars: The Force Awakens continuing on the beloved saga, in hopes that it would live up to the original trilogy. The film came and went, and while not everyone was convinced of its greatness, the general consensus seemed to be that it was a more than worthy follow-up to Return of the Jedi, and was a good step in the right direction of erasing the stink of the prequel trilogy.

This year sees a new Star Wars film hitting theaters, but unlike last year, this one won’t continue the saga. Instead, we’ll be experiencing a single, standalone story in the form of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. As important as The Force Awakens was in rekindling the franchise, Rogue One may very well be even more important, in that it will test the franchise’s viability on film outside of the main saga. Will audiences go out to see a movie that won’t continue the overall plot?

Well, with Rogue One, it does have one thing in its favor: the Death Star. Well, not necessarily the Death Star, but rather what the Death Star represents. Rather than go off and tell a wholly standalone story, this one is something of a prequel that leans on the plot of A New Hope. Yes, the story stands alone, but it still involves much of imagery and story that we experienced in the 1977 original.

The latest Empire cover is set to capitalize on this, and the magazine that’s set to hit newsstands soon is made up of none other than the Death Star plans themselves.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE NEW EMPIRE COVER

These are the very plans that serve as the MacGuffin for this film, and we’ll likely see the entire cast of this movie get killed off one by one in their attempts to secure these plans. Let’s just hope it doesn’t end up as depressing as it sounds.

What do you think of this new cover? Let us know your thoughts down below!

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hits theaters on December 16, 2016.

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SOURCE: Empire