Rogue One Bits: Riz Ahmed Talks, A Certain Character Gets Confirmed, And The Trailer Gets Recreated In LEGO
In today's edition of Rogue One Bits:
I've been a fan of Riz Ahmed since I first saw him in the hilarious terrorism-themed dark comedy Four Lions, but I realized he was really going places after Nightcrawler, where played the moral compass to Jake Gyllenhaal's unhinged crazy. We don't even catch a glimpse of his Rogue One character (reportedly named Bohdi Rook) in the new trailer, but I'm excited to see what he does in the Star Wars universe. And in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Ahmed spoke about the impression the original trilogy left on him as a kid:
To be honest, I didn't follow the storyline or the complexity of what was going on, but I just remember these images seared onto [my] brain because it was just a series of trippy set pieces for me. It's like, Jabba the Hutt, and [Leia's looking] pretty good in a bikini, and someone's getting carved out of stone with a laser beam now... being a part of that universe is just a privilege.
Ahmed also spoke about the physical world that was constructed for the film and how having an actual set or prop to interact with can make all of the difference in the world for an actor:
The level of attention to detail and care that goes into building that world is just unbelievable. All the set designers, the costume designers, the world they create is so detailed you would not believe it. You pick up any random prop and it's got a touch screen with buttons and alien writing on it and you're just like, 'Wow, I've got to up my game.' I stole so many props... just check [on] eBay.
He's surely joking, but if anyone wants to stop by eBay and take a quick look...
Making Star Wars provided additional insight to this interview, saying that the weapons and technology or Rogue One will be more complex and detailed than anything we've seen before:
This lines up with what we've been hearing about the weapons of Rogue One. Apparently the weapons all kind of interface and work together to make bigger weapons at times. I haven't seen a photo of the weapons yet, but those that have say it is really cool and seems to offer a pretty cool look at technology in the Star Wars universe. With one team member of Rogue One being a weapons nut, I expect him to be a source for some cool antics with weapons that "click together" and make trouble for the bad guys. I would imagine this could also be a cool merchandising opportunity for Star Wars as well.
Since Rogue One will place the focus squarely on crafty Rebel Alliance soldiers instead of Jedi and characters with mystical abilities, this makes sense. If you're going to take down an enemy that outnumbers and outguns you at every turn, you've got to be crafty.
Potential spoilers for Rogue One lurk in this next section. If you want to know as little as possible, skim down the next section. Otherwise, feel free to read on.
We've known for some time that Rogue One would feature Darth Vader in some capacity, but Making Star Wars seems to have gleamed some precious new details. The site claims to have seen a photo featuring Vader and Felicity Jones' Jyn Erso, which would seemingly confirm that the two of them share at least one scene together. They also claim that Vader's suit is identical to the version seen in the original 1977 Star Wars, nailing all of the tiny details that weren't even present for his brief appearance in Revenge of the Sith. And they stand stand by the story that actor Spencer Wilding will wear the suit.
Most interesting of of all (and this is where the real potential spoilers come into play), there may be a scene where Vader gets an upgrade (or maybe a downgrade) that could explain a few things about how this character's fighting style has changed over the years:
One source is certain that the blue tank we see in the teaser has Darth Vader inside it. This person has a lot of material associated with the production. They believe a sequence was filmed in which Darth Vader get his limbs interchanged and repaired in the movie. If accurate, it would explain some in-universe discrepancies around Darth Vader's abilities in the 1977 film compared to the rest of the stories we've seen from Vader's appearances in Star Wars Rebels to the work Bob Anderson did to make Vader a swordsmen. Originally David Prowse who played Vader in the 1977 film lied about being able to sword fight, leaving George Lucas with a Darth Vader that couldn't really do much with a lightsaber. So the new limbs and limb loss he supposedly suffers in Rogue One makes me ponder if that's why Darth Vader is so tight when fighting Obi-Wan Kenobi a short time later. Was he not used to the new limbs? Does he lose them because of Jyn and her band of rebels or is that the reason Jyn and her rebels are able to succeed?
Personally, I'm happy with the "Darth Vader was originally played by a guy who couldn't sword fight and we'll leave it at that" explanation. Otherwise, some of those details certainly sound intriguing. Hit the link above if you want to delve a little deeper.
It was inevitable. Someone was going to recreate the Rogue One trailer using LEGO bricks. However, Brotherhood Workshop seems to have beaten everyone to the punch and the results are very impressive for something that was turned around in such a short period of time.