A bunch of new photos have emerged on the website Entertainment Weekly from the set of the upcoming Star Wars: Rogue One feature film, a selection of which you can find below.
This week it was also revealed that James Earl Jones would be returning to the franchise to once again voice the iconic sound of Darth Vader. Kathleen Kennedy has stated; “He will be in the movie sparingly. But at a key, strategic moment, he’s going to loom large.” About Vader, Gareth Edwards stated; “Within the Rebellion, it’s not commonly spoken about. Within the Empire, there is the culture of knowing of the existence of Darth Vader. There’s definitely an underlying feeling that there is a power – a dark power – available to the Empire and that if you overstep your mark, you will suffer the consequences.” Vader will undoubtedly be at odds at least at some point with Director Orson Krennic, played by Ben Mendelsohn.
Director Gareth Edwards sat down with EW recently and, in speaking about the plot for Star Wars: Rogue One, said; “There’s this sort of South Pacific, tropical paradise planet that subconsciously leads into some of the imagery associated with World War II,” and later “We went to lots of different places around the world, and one of them was the Maldives. When you’re shooting Stormtroopers in paradise, you have the best job in the world, you know? You can’t really deny it at that point.”
Previously, some characters’ names and ship designs were leaked out. We reported on those and can be found here. For complete details, including some potential minor spoilers head on over to the link to read about those but I will again list some character names below. Beyond the names and an extremely brief synopsis, their histories, motivations and exactly where they fit in the still confidential plot have not been revealed. According to EW, the tale will be of the typical Father/Daughter fare. But, we now have some additional details for the list.
- Felicity Jones plays Jyn Erso , a highly skilled soldier and warrior.
- Diego Luna plays Captain Cassian Andor , an officer in the Rebel Alliance. Kennedy tells EW about Diego’s character and how he is the balance to Erso: ” “He’s an intelligence officer and he’s got quite a bit of combat experience,”
- Jiang Wen plays Baze , a freelance assassin Jyn’s mission is personal, since her father, Galen (Mads Mikkelsen), is a scientist whose knowledge is being sought by both the Empire and the Rebellion.
- Riz Ahmed plays Bodhi, a rebel soldier. He is a costar as the Rebel squad’s lead pilot,
- ??? plays Pao , an alien who is described as a “fierce warrior”. Looks like another computer generated character.
- Donnie Yen plays Chirrut, who is described as “a spiritual warrior.” We now know he wil be portraying a blind warrior, his photo is below.
- ???? plays Bistan, another CG-looking alien who is also described as “fierce warrior”.
- K-2SO “a security robot known as K-2SO (Kaytoo Esso), who is voiced and performed via motion-capture by Alan Tudyk
- Toy Soldier (depicted below) From EW: “The filmmakers didn’t want to explain exactly what’s happening here, but they confirm: yes, that’s a Stormtrooper doll, a galactic version of a toy soldier. And it will have special significance in the story.”
- Ben Mendelsohn as Director Orson Krennic. From EW: “Krennic is intended to be a contrast to Imperial officers we’ve seen before, like Peter Cushing’s Grand Moff Tarkin.”
- Forest Whitaker as Saw Gerrera. This will mark the first time one of the characters from the animated Star Wars universe crosses in to the live action one. Saw Garrison is a rather brutal freedom fighter whose methods don’t always align with what the Rebel Alliance promotes.
