We've already discovered quite a lot about the upcoming STAR WARS spinoff, but even with just under a month to go until the release of ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY, there are still new tidbits about the movie which are trickling out. ROGUE ONE is the focus of the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly and a handful of new images have emerged which reveal new details about the characters and planets found in the film, all presented in Entertainment Weekly's customary crystal clear resolution!
It wouldn't be a STAR WARS film without a scene taking place in some form of a briefing room, and this image shows Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) and Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed) discussing the plan of attack with "Senator Jebel (Jonathan Aris, of Sherlock) in red and grey; Senator Vaspar (Fares Fares, of Tyrant and Zero Dark Thirty) in blue; and Senator Pamlo (Sharon Duncan-Brewster, EastEnders and Bad Girls) in gold."
Captain Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) has a network of contacts on a variety of worlds who act as his eyes and ears and report on the activities of the Empire, one of which is Tivik (Daniel Mays), Andor's connection to the insurgent group led by Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker).
Although he's responsible for keeping Director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) and his Death Star project running smoothly, Darth Vader also doesn't have a lot of faith in either Krennic or his costly super-weapon. Lucasfilm's head of story development, Kiri Hart, says that Vader has a "broader perspective" due to his understanding of the Force, a perspective which Krennic does not share as he doesn't entirely understand the Force.
Jyn Erso's father, Galen (Mads Mikkelsen), is a scientist who is an expert at manipulating kyber crystals, which are used in both lightsabers and the Death Star's laser. Despite being friends at one point, Galen and his family fled to the planet of Lah'mu where they hid from the Empire until Krennic sent his Deathtrooper commandos to capture Galen and force him to work on the Death Star.
A giant energy field was constructed around the planet of Scarif in order to keep prying eyes away from the Empire's secret project, and the only entry to the world is through the Shield Gate. One of ROGUE ONE's critical battles has the Rebel's attacking the Gate in order to open up a path to the planet below.
The latest Rebel starship, the U-wing, is brand new (to our eyes at least) but is made out of familiar pieces. The cockpit is reminiscent of a Y-wing, the engines are scavenged from an X-wing and the front facing wings give a little nod to the prequel trilogy's Jedi Interceptors. Visual Effects supervisor John Knoll said that "our conceit is that the U-wing came from the same factory that was manufacturing X-wings, it’s just like if you look at cars from one [automaker], you see design themes carried across multiple different product lines."
When Riz Ahmed signed on to play Bodhi Rook in ROGUE ONE, the character wasn't exactly fully formed, but director Gareth Edwards had some ideas on what type of character he wanted Rook to be, telling Ahmed to take inspiration from Dennis Hopper in APOCALYPSE NOW and Dustin Hoffman in PAPILLON. During the ROGUE ONE reshoots, Rook was one of the characters who received more attention.
Although Donnie Yen's Chirrut Imwe isn't a Jedi, he does share many similarities with them, including standing up for what's right. "In that era, there are still brave people who are doing heroic acts, who don’t have those Force powers, who still fight and die for the cause of good," says John Knoll. "And I think, I want to hear some of those stories. What are these people who are the more ordinary citizens of the galaxy who see outrageous acts occurring and feel like they have to take up arms against the status quo to, you know, fight for good."
ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY will hit theaters on December 16, 2016.