'Sherlock' Actor Jonathan Aris Joins 'Star Wars: Rogue One'

Jonathan Aris might be joining the cast of Gareth Edwards' Star Wars Anthology film Star Wars: Rogue One. Find out more details from the Star Wars Jonathan Aris report, including the actor's supposed Star Wars character name, after the jump.

The report comes from BBC News, which noticed that Jonathan Aris, who plays Anderson in BBC's Sherlock and also appeared in Edgar Wright's The World's End, listed the gig on his Spotlight page. That's essentially an official online CV used by actors and agents. Its also worth noting that the Spotlight listings for Star Wars: The Force Awakens have proven to be accurate in the leadup to that production, including details of the roles the actors were to be playing.

The page lists the role in the film as a character called Senator Jebel. Of course, we know nothing about the characters of this film thus far, so this doesn't reveal much at all. And even the quickest glance at Star Wars history will see a long legacy of British actors being employed over the course of the franchise, so this casting is not unlikely. With filming expected to begin in just a few days, we are likely to hear more details and learn about more actors involved in the film.

We still don't know much about the first Star Wars Anthology film. We were the first to tell you that Star Wars: Rogue One would be a heist movie about a group of bounty hunters hired by the rebels to try to steal the plans to the Empire's greatest weapon: the Death Star. We've since heard rumblings that the second Star Wars Anthology film (the one Josh Trank was previously attached to) would focus on bounty hunter Boba Fett, and it seems (for now) we may have been wrong about the bounty hunter part of our initial report

"Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet." – from the opening crawl of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope

Rogue One is set between the films Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope, during the Age of the Empire. Directed by Gareth Edwards, based on an idea by John Knoll and a screenplay by Gary Whitta and Chris Weitz. Felicity Jones stars as a Rebel soldier, and Riz Ahmed and Diego Luna will play Rebel characters as well. Ben Mendelsohn is expected to play a villain. We don't know the film's main antagonist yet, but its been reported that Darth Vader will make some sort of appearance in the film.  Alexandre Desplat, and not John Williams, will write the score for Rogue One.

Unlike the previous live-action Star Wars films, Rogue One will not revolve around the Jedi or the Force. Edwards described the film at Celebration Anaheim as existing in a more "gray" area than the black and white of the original trilogy, touting that the film would feel "Real...This is a real place that we're really in."

Star Wars: Rogue One will hit theaters on December 16th, 2016.