Star Wars: Rogue One – New Information and Character Details

Star Wars rogue one

Yesterday we knew very little about Rogue One, other than what was featured on the teaser trailer. Now, well, now we know a whole lot more.

Due to this ‘most impressive’ leak we have a great deal of new information to digest and I’m going to break it down as best as I can, partly because I’m typing this through a haze of excitement. There was a very tight net kept on The Force Awakens, certainly nothing of this magnitude, and while that worked in building a great deal of hype, I spent a whole year wanting to know more and had only trailers to keep me going.

Rogue One Cast Photo

Aside from Jyn Erso, played by the lovely Felicity Jones, Mon Mothma and the repeated rumours of Darth Vader, we didn’t even know the names of the other characters. Until now.

  • Felicity Jones plays Jyn Erso , a highly skilled soldier and warrior.
  • Diego Luna plays Captain Cassian Andor , an officer in the Rebel Alliance.
  • Jiang Wen plays Baze , a freelance assassin
  • Riz Ahmed plays Bodhi, a rebel soldier.
  • ??? 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.”
  • ???? plays Bistan, another CG-looking alien who is also described as “fierce warrior”.

Rogue One Heroes

While this covers the Rebel side of things, and certainly doesn’t contain information about all the characters fighting for the Rebellion against the Empire, it tells us quite a bit. I’m particularly fond of Diego Luna’s character name, Cassian Andor is possibly the most Star Wars sounding name of all time.

Then we get onto the Imperial side of things.

Rogue One Villains

Ben Mendelsohn’s imposing character glimpsed twice on the trailer who wears what many Expanded Universe fans recognise as the uniform of a Grand Admiral (Quick sidebar, I love that we are getting more Star Wars but hate that fantastic characters such as Thrawn and Mara Jade are reduced to non-canon Legends), now we know who he is playing; Director Krennic and it certainly seems like he is the villain of this piece.

Or is he?

Well, yes. Obviously he is, however, it is impossible to ignore the image of Darth Vader appearing several times in this leaked material, confirming the rumours that the Dark Lord of the Sith himself will be making an appearance in Rogue One. Apparently Vader features during a brutal battle scene and does some major damage in ways we’ve never seen before. It will be great to see him again and will most definitely help Disney to sell this film to audiences, so expect Vader to show up on the second trailer much as Han and Chewie did for The Force Awakens.

Rogue One Heroes and Villains

All of this comes from a book, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story: The Official Visual Story Guide, 10 pages were sent out as a preview. As well as the great character information, we also get a glimpse at several new vehicles. I thought The Force Awakens was fantastic but I do feel that we got a bit short changed on new spaceships, it seems Rogue One will more than make up for that.

First up is the Tie Striker. I love everything about this new Imperial fighter, it looks fantastic, reminiscent of the Jedi Starfighters from the prequels, and it shows the power of Star Wars because I am already clearing space in my flat for where the model Striker will go.

Rogue One Tie Striker

Also looking pretty cool and very much in keeping with the Original Trilogy’s aesthetic is the Rebel Alliance’s new craft, the U-Wing.

Rogue One U-Wing

And here’s the final new vehicle, some sort of landspeeder tank.

Rogue One Tank

This gives us a really good look at the world being built for the first Star Wars spin-off, there’s a great deal of expectation from the fans, and I imagine from Disney as well, for Rogue One to be a massive success. The main films, the saga films, are destined to be huge money makers but the Star Wars Story films are currently an unknown quantity and Rogue One is the first in what should be a long run of spin-offs.

After The Force Awakens, I am willing to take a lot on faith with this new generation of Star Wars on the big screen, seeing all of these images has certainly upped the already colossal excitement factor. Rogue One is starting to look and feel like a worthy entry into the legends of a galaxy far, far away.

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