Loose Lips Sink Death Stars: 'Star Wars: Rogue One' Character Details, Trailer Rumors, And More

With Star Wars: The Force Awakens currently burning down box office records in theaters, the time has come for us to slowly divert our attention to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. A few new details about the upcoming spin-off film, which follows the men and women who steal the original Death Star plans before the events of the original Star Wars, trickled out earlier this week. Now, juicer details have begun arrive online.

Yes, the rumor mill has been officially reactivated for 2016 and the first (potentially) solid information about the Rogue One characters, among other things, has arrived. Grab your a dose of healthy skepticism and follow us down this rabbit hole!

With Rogue One officially less than a year away, people have begun to wonder when the first teaser trailer will show up. After all, that original teaser for The Force Awakens (you know, the one with our first look at BB-8 and Kylo Ren's lightsaber) arrived on November 28, 2014, over a year before the final film strolled into theaters and decimated box office records.

Some people have predicted that the first footage would premiere during the Super Bowl, putting the movie before one of the largest audiences in all of television. I've joked that Disney would be wise to book it before their upcoming film The Finest Hours, since it may actually get some people to go out and pay money to see The Finest Hours. Heck, it's even possible to imagine a scenario where the trailer gets attached to The Force Awakens toward the end of its run, encouraging fans to flock out to see the film one more time.

However, Star Wars Time is reporting another likely scenario: they say that the first trailer for Rogue One will be attached to Captain America: Civil War, which opens on May 6, 2016. Feel free to take this with a grain of salt for two reasons. First of all, Star Wars Time (while undoubtedly run by upstanding people) doesn't have the track record of other Star Wars fan sites when it comes to breaking news. At least not yet. Secondly, it seems awfully unlikely that Disney would wait that long to debut the first footage. Yes, we believe 100% that a trailer will be attached to Civil War, but we also believe that the first teaser will premiere elsewhere first. After all, the second trailer for The Force Awakens premiered with Avengers: Age of Ultron last year.

Making Star Wars has broken enough accurate news over the past two years that you should sit up and take notice when they say that they've obtained new details about Rogue One that they believe to be accurate. Of course, this should be considered all rumor until we hear anything official and yes, this should be treated as potential spoilers. Tread with caution.

According to their report, Mads Mikkelsen's character is the Imperial scientist chiefly responsible for getting the final Death Star fully functional. However, his guilt over building the ultimate weapon of mass destruction forces him to reconsider his allegiances. Here's how Making Star Wars describes him:

Mads Mikkelsen (Galen appears to be his name in the film) is kind of the key to the film in a way. He is a scientist that took over the Geonosian Death Star project. He solved several of the flaws the Empire could not and is sort of a revered person in the Empire for his contributions. However, Mikkelsen's character is a Robert Oppenheimer-type character. Oppenheimer helped design the atomic bomb only to say, "Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." The guilt "Galen" feels for his contributions to the Empire become too much and he defects, attempting to make things right. In order to do this, he enlists the help of his only daughter....

And yes, that "only daughter" seems to be Felicity Jones' character, a fellow egghead who must team up with a team of rebels (and maybe a few bounty hunters) to destroy what her father built. Although we cannot confirm any of this, this certainly sounds like a nifty set-up for the film, injecting that whole "Death Star plans are stolen" plot with a serious personal connection.

Or this could all fake. Or it could have been true at one time, but has now changed. It's your job, fellow Star Wars fan, to sort through the evidence and come up with an opinion that will surely be blasted to bits when the official information starts to arrive.

Jedi News is reporting that actor Guy Henry is in the cast of Rogue One. Star Wars fans may recognize him from the final two Harry Potter films, where he played Ministry of Magic official Pius Thicknesse. In the U.K., he is better know for playing Henrik Hanssen on the BBC series Holby City.

Additional details are under wraps, but Jedi News believes that he will play an Imperial officer. And we believe that, too. Just look at the guy! He looks like he was born to squeeze into a grey uniform and scowl.

Making Star Wars spent a significant amount of digital ink last year describing The Force Awakens set photos and concept art that the site could not legally post. It looks like this tradition will continue for Rogue One. The site has posted a lengthy description of what sounds like a key location (and possibly a few key characters) in the film. The place: an urban area on an unknown planet, with architecture not unlike that seen on Tatooine. An X-Wing has crashed into the scene, causing all kinds of destruction. Stormtroopers (of the original trilogy variety, of course) swarm the area.

Also on the scene are these two gentlemen:

On the street, two men walk in front of the wreckage of the black-and-white X-wing fighter. It isn't clear if they were a part of the crash or if it was just a part of their entrance. The first man has a long rifle that in spirit seems to resemble Doc Brown's riffle from Back to the Future Part III. He has a black leather trench coat on. His mask is dull red and the visor is like a cross between Kylo Ren and and the Imperial guards from Return of the Jedi. The other man has a brown trench coat and a really big rifle with a stock that reminds me of the guns used on Hoth by the rebels in The Empire Strikes Back. If I had to guess, I would say these two are probably bounty hunters or two of the coolest extras of all time.

Since some story scuttlebutt suggests that several members of Felicity Jones' team are bounty hunters, could these two represent members of the main ensemble? It's certainly possible. Then again, Star Wars has always been about filling the frame with as many interesting background characters as possible.