When an unnamed stormtrooper from "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" randomly became the film's breakout star, the internet was quick to think Londoner Alex Rolt was the man behind the mask. Why? Well, Rolt tweeted about his involvement in the film, and even gave an interview with an English outlet describing the arduous but exciting filming and rehearsal process.
Turns out, Rolt made it all up. He wasn't the unnamed Stormtrooper, and he wasn't involved in "Star Wars" at all.
Lucasfilm, via StarWars.com, has since confirmed Liang Yang as man behind the Stormtrooper, "FN-2199." Rolt has since deleted his Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts.
Lucasfilm also shared more details about Yang (and his "Star Wars" character). Here's what we know about Yang:
Yang is a trained acrobat and martial artist born in China, but his website says he's now based in London. Yang's first role was the 2007 action film "Underground," where he played a Chinese martial artist also named Liang. The full film is streaming on Amazon Video.
Yang cracked into Hollywood in 2011 and did stuntwork in bigger films like "Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides" and "X-Men: First Class," but his next major role was in 2012's "Skyfall" where he faced off against James Bond. The Screen Actor's Guild honored Yang and the other stunt-performers for their work on the film.
Yang received the same honor two years later for his stunt-work on HBO's "Game of Thrones." Here he is training for the episode "The Mountain and the Viper" alongside The Mountain himself, Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson. Yang practiced the martial arts moves that Pedro Pascal, the Viper, would use in the climactic season four battle.
Which bring us to Yang's latest work in "The Force Awakens." He became a viral sensation for his signature 'Z6 Baton' spinning when he fought Finn (John Boyega). Here he is, unmasked:
Yang has a very impressive body of work and definitely deserves praise for "The Force Awakens" - just look at the social media storm the guy started. Lucasfilm put it best in the confirmation post: "Without his baton spinning, you wouldn’t be reading this."
We've reached out to Yang and will update if we hear back.
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