D23: STAR WARS: ROGUE ONE Looks Like SUICIDE SQUAD
During the ‘Worlds, Galaxies and Universes: Live Action at the Walt Disney Studios,’ panel at the D23 Expo, Disney’s very own special convention, a ton of news about Marvel and Star Wars dropped, including Doctor Strange concept art and a Civil War trailer. You can read about all that here and here, but it’s been that second franchise which really blew the roof off of everywhere in Anaheim.
As well as revealing an Episode IX director, Disney released the first official cast photo from Star Wars: Rogue One, which looks a hell of a lot like the Suicide Squad one. Check it out!!!
So… this is dark. Star Wars has always been very colourful and uplifting, and while we knew that this first spin-off would be much grittier it’s still kinda weird to see a movie in this franchise have such a dark colour palette. And c’mon, the Rebels totally look like the Suicide Squad.
Hooray for darkness and grittiness!
The one diference is that Rogue One‘s photo doesn’t have the complete cast. Well, and the whole lack-of-supervillains thing. Ben Mendelsohn (The Dark Knight Rises) was finally confirmed as well as Forest Whitaker (who needs no introduction). As well as this, Hannibal himself Mads Mikkelsen is in the movie. Yay!!!
Oh, and Alan Tudyk too as a motion-capture guy. But MADS MIKKELSEN!!!
There’s no word on who he’ll be playing, but I imagine it’ll be a particularly sinister one. There aren’t any Jedi or Sith in this movie, so we can also rule that one out. Tudyk is probably some comic relief guy, and Mendelsohn is probably an Imperial figure. What doesn’t seem to be confirmed is Jonathan Amis’ role which was rumoured a few weeks back, so either he’s just a small supporting character not warranting of a press release or he’s not in the movie. It’s a bummer that we didn’t find out who they’re all playing but this is better than nothing!
Back when the Rogue One title was announced, they were also revealed to go under the ‘Anthology’ banner. That’s now out the window too, as the spin-offs will now be called…
Yup. ‘A Star Wars Story’. Well, it’s alright. It’s got a very old-school vibe that fits with these movies, but at the same time it sounds less cool than ‘Anthology’. Back when I was a kid I came up with an idea for spin-off movies under the ‘Star Wars Stories’ imprint, so Lucasfilm would release Star Wars Stories: Yoda or whatever. I’m actually surprised that the final name they went with is so similar, since I just dismissed it after a few years as childish. But I guess it could work.
Gone are the bright orange jumpsuits and white helmets that we know from the Original Trilogy; in their place are military-esque guerilla outfits that look they could have been ripped out of Gareth Edwards’ previous movie, Godzilla. Perhaps we’ll be seeing a very different Rebel Alliance in Star Wars: Rogue One next December; less idealistic and hopeful, but a hell of a lot more diverse.
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