As promised, Empire has revealed an alternate cover for their upcoming October issue, which includes a big feature story on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. This one puts Ben Mendelsohn’s villain front and center, flanked by a pair of menacing Death Troopers — that name alone is way cooler and more intimidating than the Empire’s usual Stormtroopers, and that’s before we even get to those sleek, black suits.

Honestly, it’s weird that the Empire would even use Stormtroopers when they have these Death Troopers hanging around. And oh, hey, it’s the Empire on the cover of Empire magazine. Cool:

Empire
Empire
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Ben Mendelsohn plays Director Orson Krennic (sounds about right) in Rogue One, which takes place just before the events of A New Hope and follows a group of Rebel fighters as they attempt to steal the plans to the first Death Star. And we all know how that turns out. But they don’t, so we should let them have this moment.

Gareth Edwards directed the Star Wars spinoff, which has been described as a “war film,” and also stars Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso, Mads Mikkelsen as her father Galen, Riz Ahmed as Rebel pilot Bodhi Rook, Diego Luna as Captain Cassian Andor, Forest Whitaker as Saw Gerrera, Donnie Yen as blind warrior Chirrut Imwe, Jiang Wen as Baze Malbus and Alan Tudyk as K-2SO, aka Kaytoo. Star Wars vets James Earl Jones and Jimmy Smits will reprise their roles as Darth Vader and Bail Organa, repsectively.

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

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