Is Matt Smith Actually In Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker?

2. Smith's Character Leaks? (October 2019)

Star Wars Episode IX Matt Smith
Lucasfilm/BBC

After that cast list confusion, nothing major popped up about Smith's Episode IX role for the next few months. But that changed rather recently when an extremely curious photo started doing the rounds online.

Snapped by a fan and uploaded to Twitter, the image of a blue alien is supposedly taken from a new set of Topps trading cards, released to tie in with the upcoming film. The character has no name, and is simply labelled "A New Face".

The important thing here is that this character looks a hell of a lot like Smith. The jawline, the eyes, the stare - it's all there, and if it isn't him, then it's a huge coincidence that a mysterious new Star Wars character who looks like Matt Smith (in makeup) will be appearing in Episode IX, especially after months of rumours about Smith himself.

Also, not even giving the character a proper name links in with the whole air of mystery surrounding the Smith/Star Wars timeline. Is this character linked to Palpatine somehow? Is he a rebel, or a First Order spy? What's with the mask?

Depending on your outlook, having more questions at this point is either extremely interesting... or extremely frustrating.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!