Star Wars: Rogue One - Who Lives, Who Dies (And Why)

With the title enemy of this film being the Imperial military, it makes sense Orson Krennic is that embodiment. As Director of the Advanced Weapons Research for the Empire, Krennic's involvement throughout the film will be twofold. His responsibility will be to protect the newly constructed Death Star while dealing with the Rebel saboteurs seeking to steal the plans and exploit a weakness.

While perhaps not on the same level as Grand Moff Tarkin from the original film, Krennic most likely falls somewhere within the pecking order. Krennic has his own ambitions to climb the Imperial hierarchy and attain favor with the Emperor; protecting the ultimate power in the galaxy could merely be a stop gap, especially if that means climbing past Darth Vader himself.

Fate: Dies

Krennic's fate is the easiest to assume, considering we know the Rebels succeed in stealing the plans and destroying the Death Star. Events most likely spin completely out of control for Krennic, forcing the deployment of Darth Vader and his eventual role at retrieving the plans from the Rebels at the start of A New Hope. Krennic will be a memorable villain but he'll go down as a major player on the losing side of the Rebels first victory.