Disney Trademarks “Shadow Troopers”. Possible Rogue One Connection?
People who have played Star Wars: The Force Unleashed may be familiar with the concept of the Shadow Trooper (shown after the jump) – a more stealth-oriented and heavily-armed version of the Stormtrooper. Now, it appears as though Lucasfilm is revisiting the concept, as they’ve just trademarked the term “Shadow Trooper” – most likely for the forthcoming release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
From TMZ:
Lucasfilm filed docs to lock up the trademark to manufacture and sell all things “Shadow Trooper” — such as clothing, footwear, toys, gymnastic and sporting articles, electronic games, Christmas stockings, Christmas tree ornaments, snow globes … pretty much everything under Tatooine’s 2 suns. Shadow has already been introduced to the ‘Star Wars’ universe via video games, but hasn’t been in any of the movies. This move is a strong sign that’s about to change. ‘Star Wars’ geeks have speculated a debut in “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” … which comes out in December.
The news announcement of the trademark reminds me of an earlier leak that came from Donnie Yen, one of the movie’s key actors. Shown below are three helmets that were made for the film.
Of the three helmets shown above, it seems most likely that the helmet on the left is going to be the one used for this new type of trooper – which itself is a welcome change from the standard “recolored Stormtrooper helmet” that the original one had. In any case, I can’t wait to see these soldiers in action.
Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.
The black helmet from Donnie is my least favorite but I absolutely love the idea of black armor troopers… So I’m happy regardless.
I’ve always kind of been on the fence when it comes to excitement for R1… but it’s steadily growing.
I’m reserving my hesitation for this Han Solo flick.
Gotta reserve that reservation.
You betcha buddy
I’m holding back all excitement until they announce they’re making Episodes 10-12. Then I’ll retract that excitement as soon as the movies are released and convert it into a cynical stand-offish-ness then when my son is old enough I’ll go all goo eyed over the whole saga.
I’m hoping I can stick to that plan because if I don’t people are going to give me hell because comments on the internet last forever.
When I was a boy back in the 1830’s my Mother used to tell me “Shaky, you watch what you type on that there internets you hear me” Never a truer word spoken.
Good!! It’s about time we see that. I was expecting some in FA
Black Stormtroopers were so 2015.
They did not trademark this already for Battlefront?
That pile of shit isn’t Canon.
same could be said for Battlefront 2!
Except that game isn’t a pile of shit, so….
But they do use the term Shadow Trooper so you figure they would have already trademarked it.
But Battlefront is considered canon, isn’t it? So doesn’t that mean that type of shadow trooper (much like in my avatar) is already canon?
I literally just made that comment above, lol. I bet they’ll just retcon it by having Shadow Troopers and Elite Shadow Troopers with the new helmet type.
I told you it was Shadow Troopers (and NOT Death Troopers).
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Shadow_Trooper
Can’t wait till we see some Rogue One stuff
maybe someday we will. Bog Iger says there will be an aggressive marketing campaign for Rogue One but what the hell are they waiting for to start it?
We will get our first trailer the day it comes out…Lol, but seriously I think we will get it when Cap. America Civil War hits theaters.
I still can’t believe they’re really going to make us wait until May to see footage, just 7 months before release. And it will just be a teaser. Hope we don’t have to wait until October to see a full trailer.
Yeah,let’s hope not.
Whoa whoa, whats all this Force Unleashed crap? Shadowtroopers go back to Jedi Outcast don’t they?
*with a helmet that looked rather like the one in Donnie’s “leak”..
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Shadowtrooper
Shadowtroopers and Shadow Stormtroopers are actually two different things.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Shadow_stormtrooper
Dark Forces
That’s what I thought. They were the black reborn stormtroopers with the lightsaber resistant armor and artificial force powers. They were a bitch to beat too.
Different Shadow Troopers. There are Shadow Stormtroopers and there are Shadowtroopers. Weird enough, they’re not considered the same thing.
Yeah I know they are different. But the article specifically mentions ‘Shadow Trooper’ and not ‘Shadow Stormtrooper’ and the guys from Jedi Outcast were called Shadow Troopers.
Ah, I see now that on wookieepedia the Jedi Outcast guys are called Shadowtroopers, one word. Confusing. Anyway, they’re all black stormtroopers. It will be cool to see what role they are going to play in Rogue One. Probably something else yet again.
Star Wars Galaxies actually..
Neg, Outcast predated Galaxies by a year, and Dark Forces was 8 years prior.
How are they going to explain the shadow troopers having two different helmet shapes?
The world may never know…
Why are TIE Fighter wings different from Interceptor wings?
Soldiers wear different gear based on their mission priorities.
Scout Troopers on Endor have a different shaped helmet. Snow Troopers on Hoth, different helmet.
Obviously stealthy black armored Shadow Troopers need a new helmet too.
NO, I mean that the Shadow Troopers in Battlefront have a black-colored normal helmet, while the helmet above is a completely different shapes. So why are there two different types of Shadow Troopers?
An evolution of the times I’d wager. The base Stormtrooper/Clonetrooper has changed over the years as shown here https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/f5/7d/6a/f57d6aa643efd03e45a745bcc7bdf7bf.jpg
It could be an earlier design.
Yeah, the clonetrooper helmet looks pretty naff doesn’t it.
It’s different. I wasn’t sold on the new Stormtrooper helmets from TFA at first but they grew on me. We also haven’t seen the rest of the armor yet so we don’t have all of the context.
Maybe.
Oh! For one, this takes place prior to Battlefront which is ESB on. So the armor might change.
Also, while I know video games are supposed to be canon, I don’t know that a skin in the game named “Shadow Trooper” is going to count.
I’m thinking more along the lines of “Story events” or story lines from a video game will become canon. And since Battlefront has no story, it will continue to exist along the time line but contribute nothing to the actual universe except spoiled expectations.
Sounds good.
it’ll be great to see these on screen. Hoping to see a EU variation as well.
EU variation?
Yes, there were several different versions of these troopers in old novels and games. All good stuff!
Oh yeah, I see what you mean. The Shadow Stormtroopers, the Shadowtroopers, etc.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/75c2132556bbce9ac9dccfcf5589806a5afa011a22cf6c6d27d3d4f0c6a59fd9.png
That is a Shadow Stormtrooper.
Not to be confused with the black hole trooper….
Yep.
Based on my Comic Pack, the Shadow Stormtroopers speak with a hologram of Blackhole, the Imperial Intelligence Officer, after capturing Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia. Although this is based on the non-Canon Expanded Universe which “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” will probably not follow.
Comic Pack on Shadow Stormtroopers and Blackhole.
There are Shadow Troops in Battlefront, so kind of guessed they were going to be official.
Weren’t they inspired by Blackhole Troopers from the old comic strip? I like the idea of an Imperial assassin division which makes sense in the context of the film and is a new idea for the saga. Plus they can upgrade them for the sequel films. Would be nice to see some crossover there in this one.