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More Details on Star Wars: Rogue One

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10 years ago

June 23, 2016

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More on This Christmas’s Star Wars Movie

♦With six months to go until Star Wars: Rogue One is released, a few details have come out courtesy of this week’s Entertainment Weekly and our friends at Den of Geek have that info…

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Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones)

We’ve known about Jones’ character for a little while now. She’s the rebellious young fighter who winds up working for the Rebellion in what will prove to be the turning point in the war against the Empire. Further underlining our impression that Rogue One is probably going to be a kind of Dirty Dozen in space, Jyn Erso is a criminal detained by the Rebellion, and successfully carrying out her mission could see her sentence being commuted. That’s according to producer Kathleen Kennedy, who adds, “She’s a real survivor. She becomes a kind of Joan of Arc in the story.”

Captain Cassian Andor (Diego Luna)

Andor’s a Rebel intelligence officer, and according to Entertainment Weekly, he is a calming influence on the hot-headed Erso.

Chirrut Imwe (Donnie Yen)

Chirrut’s a warrior monk, though you may have sussed that out from his Stormtrooper-bashing antics in the Rogue One trailer. In a direct reference to Zatoichi, Chirrut’s blindness is far from a barrier, and right now, it looks as though he’s one of the movie’s few true believers in the Jedi religion.

Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen)

Malbus is described as Chirrut’s friend, albeit with a very different philosophy and approach to combat; armoured and toting a blaster, he has little time for “hokey religions”, we’re told. Perhaps he is the Han Solo of the crew.

Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed)

We’ve known the name of Ahmed’s character for a while, but little about his character has come to light. That still seems to be the case, though Kathleen Kennedy describes him as “tense, volatile,” and he also happens to be the Rebels’ lead pilot. Fantastic in such films as Four Lions and Nightcrawler, here’s hoping Bodhi Rook gives British actor Ahmed plenty to get his thespian teeth into.

K-2S0 (Alan Tudyk)

The droid played by a motion-captured Alan Tudyk was briefly glimpsed in the Rogue One teaser, but it sounds as though his character could make a big impact in the finished film. Described as the antithesis of C-3PO’s mithering space butler, K-2S0 is far more resilient and plain-speaking. To quote director Gareth Edwards, “Kaytoo is a little bit like Chewbacca’s personality in a droid’s body. He doesn’t give a shit about what you think.” He sounds like fun already.

Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen)

Proving that the internet rumour mill sometimes does get things right, Mads Mikkelsen really is playing the Death Star’s designer and estranged father of Jyn Erso. Interestingly, Entertainment Weekly haven’t shown an image of Mikkelsen in character as Galen, and Rogue One’s makers are also keeping the reasons for Jyn and Galen’s estrangement very quiet. Some surprises do deserve to be left for the big screen, we guess.

Director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn)

We did see Mendelsohn swishing his big white cape about in the trailer, and now we even know his name and rank: Director Krennic. He leads the fight against the Rebels, which he hopes will put him in the “Emperor’s graces”. The magazine confirms that Darth Vader will make at least a fleeting appearance in Rogue One; that line suggests the Emperor will be talked about in hushed tones, even if he doesn’t take centre stage.

Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker)

For fans of The Clone Wars, this is the biggest news of all: Forest Whitaker’s playing a new-look version of a character who’s been kicking around in the Star Wars universe for years. According to Star Wars lore, Saw and his sister Steela were trained by Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin, back before the latter turned to the Dark Side. An “extremist” warrior who’s fought on the side of the Rebels for decades, his views are considered worrying even by those on his own side. It’s probably no coincidence that his name rhymes with Che Guevara.