https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs0xLApj-v0

“Machinima,” or animated short films created by manipulating gameplay and cinematic footage from video games alongside new or alternate soundtrack elements, have long been one of the most popular forms of viral video content on the internet. And as games and home editing software have jointly increased in complexity, so too have the skills of machinima filmmakers to mix and match media in order to create fresh, unusual takes on popular entertainment.

Case in point: Here’s the epic final trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story recreated using elements from the hit Bungie title Destiny.

While Destiny shares similarities with the Star Wars universe inasmuch as both are science-fiction epics set in a far-flung galaxy where advanced technology and diverse alien races interact in an intergalactic social-system that mirrors the structures and customs of a medieval fantasy kingdom, they have very different approaches to design and aesthetic. Thusly, the result of combining video from one with audio from another highlights these differences in interesting ways – most notably, the appearance of elaborate melee weapons and horror-movie-esque alien villains who would look somewhat out of place in the Lucasfilm-produced feature films.

http://static.srcdn.com/slir/w1000-h...ne-Destiny.jpg

On the other hand, elements like starships and sprawling alien worlds look right at home when paired with the familiar music cues and sound effects, handily demonstrating just how profound an influence the Star Wars franchise has had over its own genre in the four decades since George Lucas’ then-risky 1977 blockbuster first exploded onto movie screens worldwide – forever altering the way the popular-culture depicted science-fiction landscapes and tropes like spaceships, robots and aliens.

Taking place just before the events of the original A New Hope, Rogue One is the first Star Wars film to be set between two previous installments and is part of an ambitious “Star Wars Stories” sub-franchise meant to be released in-between the bi-annual launch of episodes in the main series. Directed by Gareth Edwards, it aims to tell the previously unknown story of the Rebellion team who stole the top-secret Death Star plans later stored within R2D2 by Princess Leia before the droids were dispatched to find Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Set 700 years in the future, Destiny tasks players with exploring planets and battling evil as part of multiplayer teams in a universe where a once thriving intergalactic union of human colonies mysterious collapsed; with humans living on Earth spared only by the intervention of an enigmatic celestial body known as The Traveller coming to rest over the planet’s surface. Players must work to beat back invading alien threats and re-power The Traveller in order to ensure the survival of humanity itself.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story opens in U.S. theaters on December 16, 2016, followed by Star Wars: Episode VIII on December 15, 2017, the Han Solo Star Wars Anthology film on May 25, 2018, Star Wars: Episode IX in 2019, and the third Star Wars Anthology film in 2020.