It is now less than six months until Rogue One hits screens, and more information is emerging about the hugely-anticipated Star Wars spinoff. Yesterday, it was confirmed that Darth Vader will make an appearance, and now details of the film's main characters have been revealed.
Entertainment Weekly are running Rogue One coverage all week, and have published a breakdown of who's who in the new movie. The new characters are:
Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones)
A streetwise delinquent who has been on her own since 15, she has fighting skills and a knowledge of the galactic underworld that the Rebel Alliance desperately needs.Captain Cassian Andor (Diego Luna)
Andor is a by-the-book Rebel intelligence officer, brought in to steady the volatile Erso, but he's no square. He's committed, steady, and practical, and has seen more than his share of combat.Chirrut Imwe (Donnie Yen)
Pronounced chi-RUT, he's no Jedi, but he's devoted to their ways and has used his spirituality to overcome his blindness and become a formidable warrior.Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen)
Heavily armored, Baze prefers a blaster to hokey religions and ancient weapons, but he is devoted to protecting his friend Chirrut at all costs.Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed)
Bodhi is this Rebel squad's lead pilot. He tends to be hot-headed, but any abrasiveness is overshadowed by his skills in the air--and the void of space.K-2SO (Alan Tudyk)
This towering, powerful security droid is described by director Gareth Edwards as "the antithesis of C-3PO." In other words, he's tough, confident, not especially interested in "human/cyborg relations," and the complete opposite of a neurotic fussbudget.Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen)
Jyn's estranged father is like the galactic version of nuclear pioneer J. Robert Oppenheimer, with doomsday knowledge that is sought by both the Empire and the Rebellion.Director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn)
On the opposing side, this villain is an ambitious Imperial apparatchik who intends to use his squad of Deathtroopers to pulverize the Rebel uprising and ascend into the Emperor’s graces--while hopefully avoiding the wrath of his enforcer, Darth Vader.An additional protagonist is Saw Gerrera, played by Forest Whitaker. Unlike these other characters, Gerrera isn't new to the Star Wars universe. He appears in the acclaimed animated series The Clone Wars, and is described by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy as "a battered veteran who leads a band of Rebel extremists on the fringe of the Rebel Alliance."
Rogue One is due out on December 16, 2016.