Now that Star Wars: The Force Awakens is behind us, expect Rogue One: A Star Wars Story to become the target of rumour-mongering and speculation as we count down towards the release of Lucasfilm’s first Anthology movie this December.
Sure enough, some potential details have surfaced concerning Mads Mikkelsen’s character – thought to be called Galen Marek – and how he’ll fit in with the plot of the Rebellion’s efforts to steal the Death Star plans. Now, it should be noted that these come by way of Making Star Wars, who were pretty reliable when it came to The Force Awakens.
Potential spoilers follow…
According to the site, Galen (if that is his name) is a scientist who took over the Genosian’s Death Star project, becoming a revered member of the Empire having solved a number of technical problems relating to the construction of the battle station. However, he’s also “a Robert Oppenheimer-type character” and guilty over becoming “Death, the destroyer of worlds” – quite literally, given the fate of Alderaan in A New Hope – Galen defects in an effort to make things right. And to do so, he enlists the help of his daughter, played by Felicity Jones.
Now, some speculation on my part, but if these details are true, perhaps ‘Rogue One’ is Galen’s codename in the Rebellion, similar to how Ahsoka Tano was being referred to as Fulcrum in Star Wars Rebels?
SEE ALSO: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story named 2016’s most anticipated movie
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is set for release on December 16th 2016, with a cast that includes Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything), Diego Luna (Milk), Ben Mendelsohn (The Dark Knight Rises), Donnie Yen (Ip Man), Jiang Wen (Let the Bullets Fly), Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland), Alan Tudyk (Con Man) and Riz Ahmed (Nightcrawler).
Originally published January 8, 2016. Updated April 15, 2018.
