Who Are the New Stormtroopers in ‘Rogue One’?

We got a great look at most of the Rebel squad that will attempt to take down the Empire by stealing the plans for the Death Star in the glorious two-minute teaser for Rogue One. There were also plenty of fascinating details to look out for on the Imperial side of things as well, like Ben Mendelsohn’s creepy unnamed Admiral character. The first image from the teaser for the teaser trailer featured one of the brand new stormtroopers sent to cause trouble for the fledgling Rebel Alliance. So who are these new bad guys anyway?

Our actual first look at parts of these new Imperial stooges go all the way back to last August. It was then that, against his better judgment (not to mention the strict NDA in his contract), Rogue One actor Donnie Yen posted a photo of two new trooper designs to his Facebook page along with the classic helmet saying “I am the force and I fear nothing… Going to put this in my company’s display room.” He fears nothing, except for maybe the Disney execs who made him promptly delete the post, but not before it was reported by every Star Wars fan fiending for any information about Rogue One they could find.

Disney may have not taken too kindly to Yen spoiling the big reveal, but it didn’t take away from seeing the helmets and their corresponding armor in action in the actual trailer.

Our first new bad guys were the sinister all-black stormtrooper soldiers seen in a shot standing watch over burning moisture vaporators in the background. Rumors around the internet are labelling these dudes as “Death Troopers,” and they seem like some kind of elite special ops team with unique armor that mirrors the look of Darth Vader. A split-second shot of these stormtroopers towards the end of the teaser make it seem like they’ll also be doing some damage to the Rebels in the beach battle at some point.

The new tan stormtroopers show up in the background of the teaser on the other side of the platform from the shot where actress Felicity Jones is seen running with who is presumably Diego Luna and an unnamed droid. These guys are seemingly equals to the retro troopers, and their role is unclear, but their similarities to the white and black scout trooper designs that show up in Return of the Jedi make it seem like they might be tactical troopers of some kind.

Besides the kickass hover tank in this shot, soon to be in every kid’s toy collection, the trooper on the vehicle seems to look similar in design to the sand-colored stormtroopers from the previous shot. There’s a ton of smoke and dust in the way, making pinpointing these guys literally hazy, but their helmets obviously differ from the throwback trooper most likely telling the person in the foreground to “Move along.”

But these new additions to the Imperial ranks beg thequestion: WHy haven’t we seen them before? How are they in this movie that takes place maybe a year or something before the original first movie in the universe’s timeline. Why are they absent in A New Hope?

Hopefully we find out the answers when Rogue One is released in theaters on December 16.