A Guide To The Many Different Stormtroopers Of 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story'

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story stars Felicity Jones, Donnie Yen, Forest Whitaker and Diego Luna as Rebel roughnecks on a mission to steal the plans to the first Death Star. They probably appeared somewhere in the first Rogue One trailer, but it was hard to tell with each frame so clogged up with tessellated stormtroopers. By my count the first Rogue One trailer has every single stormtrooper ever cloned, trained or CGed, all in a Toys “R” Us’ franchisee’s wet dream panoply of colors and costumes. So who are all these poor marksmen and side-by-side marchers clogging up the galaxy in the years before the original Star Wars ?

'Rogue One: Star Wars Story' Stormtrooper Guide

Our first stormtroopers are your standard Original Trilogy get-up.

These hover tank troopers are the first of many alternate stormtrooper designs that appear in the Rogue One teaser trailer. Their armor seems lighter, almost like the scout troopers first seen on Endor’s forest moon, but with a heavily armored helmet complete with blast shield.

These guys are rumored to be called death squad troopers. Elite shock troops, Making Star Wars has long insisted that their helmets have glowing green at accents, though that’s not evident in the Rogue One trailer.

Like most Star Wars movies, Rogue One will take us to yet another desert planet, which means the return of desert stormtroopers, also known as sandtroopers. Their armor is largely the same as the standard stormtrooper, except for a signature orange shoulder pauldron (worn by squad leaders) that, uh, has water in it? An AC unit?

These guys have a helmet similar to the hover tank troopers, with much lighter armor over their body. Look at their unarmored legs! Rumor has it these guys are called scarab troopers. The comparatively light armor would suggest these stormtroopers are more drivers than infantry.

Here’s our only other look at the Call of Duty death squad troopers.

In the days of the Republic, these guys would have been members of the elite Red Guard, but now they’ve been twisted into the Imperial Royal Guard, bodyguards and assassins who answer only to Emperor Palpatine.

If the Apple iPod troopers of Star Wars: The Force Awakens didn’t work for you, then Rogue One is looking like a goldmine. It’s a great time to be a Star Wars fan, but an expensive time to be a completist stormtrooper action figure collector. With Rogue One: A Star Wars Story focusing more on the military element, rather than the mystical Jedi side of the conflict, expect a lot more Imperial troops and tech to be revealed as the Dec. 16 release date creeps ever closer.