"Rogue One" is going to be a different kind of "Star Wars" film.
The first of three planned spin-off movies to be released in the years between Episodes VII-IX, they're an opportunity to tell stories in the "Star Wars" universe with a different sort of feel than the grand space opera fans know and love.
"Rogue One" takes place before "Episode IV: A New Hope" and tells the story of a group of resistance fighters and their mission to steal the plans for the Death Star. At this summer's recent D23 expo, the movie's cast was unveiled — and though we don't know the name of their characters or what roles they'll be playing, it's a pretty exciting bunch.
Get to know the cast of "Rogue One":
Felicity Jones finally gets a big role after getting nominated for an Oscar last year.
More than any other cast member in this movie, there's some heavy speculation about who Jones will be playing in this movie. The favorite rumor right now is that she's the daughter of Boba Fett — but that's one to take with an enormous grain of salt given that Boba Fett is a name that is always thrown around by speculators whenever there's a "Star Wars" mystery to solve.
While Jones has been acting since the late '90s — she's appeared on shows like "Doctor Who" and had a minor role in "Amazing Spider-Man 2" that would have ostensibly led to a bigger part in the now-scrapped series — she received much acclaim (and an Oscar nomination) for playing Jane Hawking opposite Eddie Redmayne in the Stephen Hawking bio pic "The Theory of Everything."
Ben Mendelsohn will likely play an intense villain.
A character actor with a penchant for playing villainous people in the States and a longtime leading man in his native Australia, Ben Mendelsohn is an actor you've almost certainly seen (most likely as Dagget in "The Dark Knight Rises") but whose face you'll likely recognize more than his name.
Mendelsohn is an intense, unsettling performer in his best roles (like Danny Rayburn in Netflix's "Bloodline"), and given that he doesn't seem to be pictured with Felicity Jones in the released cast photo, he might be playing a villain.
He does look like he'd be a good fit for an Imperial uniform, no?
Mexican actor Diego Luna also appears to suit up with the Rogue One team.
A Mexican actor who exploded on the scene with 2001's "Y Tu Mamá También," Diego Luna spent much of his career in Spanish-language cinema, occasionally surfacing in big films like "The Terminal" and landing a pivotal role in the Academy Award-nominated "Milk."
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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