Star Wars: Rogue One - First Official Image Of Cast

Time for some dark and gritty Star Wars.

Disney's D23 Expo occurred over the weekend, and as you might expect it was pretty Star Wars-centric. That included our first look at the Star Wars: Rogue One Cast, and an accompanying confirmation of exactly who'll star. Obviously names like Felicity Jones, Diego Luna and Ben Mendelsohn have been attached for a while, but we also got confirmation notices for Forrest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen and Alan Tudyk (who'll play a mo-cap character). Rogue One, the first of the Star Wars: Anthology cycle, is being described as a heist flick, in which the Rebel Alliance are tasked with stealing the Death Star's plans. It had previously been rumoured that the squad of infiltrators might be bounty hunters, but for now, that remains unfounded. We know the mission is highly likely to succeed (these are the same plans that Luke used to destroy the space station in a New Hope), but you can be sure it won't be plain sailing. Below you can take a look at the first official still from the film, which appears to show Jones and her colleagues preparing for the task at hand.
Rogue One director Gareth Edwards has been vocal in positioning his film as distant to the more fantastical elements of the Star Wars Universe (Jedi, Force and lightsaber related - although the rumour mill posits Darth Vader might have a part to play), and this image seems to support that claim. As for the picture, the mood is bleak, the tone is sombre and the frame is full. The visuals look stylishly drained in the manner of a Cold War thriller and the costumes and tech we're seeing seem appropriately ramshackle. Are all these people and all this stuff coming back from the mission? I doubt it. Star Wars: Rogue One will star Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed, Ben Mendelsohn, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, Jiang Wen, Donnie Yenn and Forrest Whitaker. It opens 16th December 2016 worldwide.
Contributor

Writer, cinephile and owner of Vampire's Kiss on DVD. Take from that what you will.