Star Wars fans were treated to a lot of new info this week about our next big-screen journey to a galaxy far, far away.
Between Entertainment Weekly scoring a lot of Star Wars scoops and Mads Mikkelsen not giving a bantha”s ass what the overlords at Lucasfilm will do if he spills all the spoilers, we”ve been getting a clearer picture of who”s who in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Check out the video below for everything there is to know now about the key players in Rogue One, including a certain Sith Lord and one character plucked from animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars:
So, yes, Darth Vader will be in this movie. My colleagues Drew and Roth can look forward to getting that “hot Vader action” they were hoping for.
EW reported that at 85, James Earl Jones will reprise his role as Darth Vader”s iconic intimidating voice, and a variety of large-framed actors will play the masked role onscreen.
And yep, Firefly alum Alan Tudyk is playing a robot again – he previously played Sonny, the central robot in 2004″s I, Robot, via motion capture.
When I talked with Tudyk in October as his web series Con Man was rolling out, he couldn”t tell me yet who he is playing or even whether he is indeed a droid. But he could talk about how much he enjoyed using performance capture to create a character for a franchise where every droid and Wookiee can have as much humanity as any character that looks like an Earthly human.
“I'm very fond of my character,” Tudyk told me. “In this world of Star Wars, there are many characters that are not necessarily human – R2-D2 is a great character that doesn't even say words, that”s beloved… Sometimes, when I tell people I'm doing a CGI character, they go, ‘Oh, I'm sorry.” I”d say more often than not, you get this disappointment or ‘Oh, it”ll be okay.” But to be playing in a CGI role in this universe is great.”
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story opens in theaters on December 16, 2016.