In a first for Star Wars, 'Rogue One' clips and opening scenes revealed

For those viewers who labored to the end end of a Twitter livestream plagued with audio problems, Lucasfilm dropped a surprise Friday: an exclusive clip from Rogue One: A Star Wars story.

It was the second clip in two days, the first appearing on the Tonight Show Wednesday night. Actual advance clips from the movie, rather than trailers, is a first for Lucasfilm under Disney ownership.

This time last year, all content from Star Wars: The Force Awakens was sewn up tight, and the viewing public was only allowed to see trailers. However, those trailers were also immediately released on YouTube -- whereas these two clips are still exclusive to their venue. (Skip forward to 3:10 in the following vid to see the first one.)

In the clip released Friday, we see Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) shortly after she's been rescued from jail by Captain Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and K-2SO (the 7' 1" droid played by Alan Tudyk). K2 is concerned that Jyn has acquired a weapon during the escape. Cassian, not so much.

"You know the chances of her using that on you?" K2 says, setting us up for a C-3PO-style punchline about telling us the odds. "High."

The clip makes a nice ironic comedy pair with the one shown on the Tonight Show, in which Jyn and Cassian are involved in a firefight later in the film. Jyn accidentally shoots a droid that looks exactly like K2.

"Did you know that wasn't me?" the droid asks. Jyn nods nervously.

Meanwhile during the Q&A, director Gareth Edwards revealed how the movie opens: with a flashback sequence from Jyn's childhood, in which Jyn's father is captured by cape-wearing Imperial bad guy Orson Krennic.

Edwards pointed out this was a deliberate contrast to the original Star Wars movie: opening with a guy in a white uniform and cape surrounded by black-armored stormtroopers, rather than a guy in a black uniform and cape surrounded by white-armored stormtroopers.

That confirms a recent report on fan blog Jedi News that a Mexican audience was shown the first 25 minutes of Rogue One and a few other scenes late last month; the audience member source said the movie opened with the flashback scene.