Everyone has been waiting anxiously for the newest Star Wars to come out and we already got a trailer for "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" earlier this year. We are finally getting some details about the mysterious characters that appeared in that trailer and who the villain will be. Spoiler: it's not the guy you're thinking.
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While Darth Vader will be featured in the film, the real villain will be Ben Mendelsohn's Director Krennic. He is described as a man who is "eager to earn the favor of the Emperor" and "avoid the wrath of his black-masked enforcer." The black-masked enforcer of course being Vader. Krennic doesn't report to Vader, but rather directly to the Emperor himself.
From Entertainment Weekly:
Darth Vader kind of looms large over the plot, even when he's not necessarily on screen, because the new villain, played by Ben Mendelsohn, he's trying to fulfill the wishes of the Emperor, and he's got Vader looming in the background, over his shoulder.
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We got another nice reveal about Mendelsohn's character thanks to Comicbook.com:
Director Krennic is a "really smart, and really effective" villain in the Empire's ranks, and the head of the Deathtroopers, the elite special forces unit of the Imperial military (those are the new black armored Stormtroopers seen in the trailers). His desire to rise in the ranks of the Empire at all costs is indicative of the nature of the entire Empire. "There is a lot of palace intrigue going on in the Empire, with people conspiring to move up the ranks and sabotaging each other. There's not a lot of loyalty there," executive producer John Knoll revealed.
It sounds like we might have a pretty sinister villain on our hands and he could take the place of Peter Cushing's Grand Moff Tarkin (from the first Star Wars movie) as a villain who Vader must begrudgingly respect. It should be interesting to see if they let the character live or die at the hands of Vader since he doesn't appear in the original trilogy anywhere.
The plot of the movie will feel very much like a heist movie as rebels —- not Jedis like we're used to —- must steal the plans for the new Death Star the Empire is building. The movie will take place between the prequel and original trilogies while focusing on Felicity Jones' rebel protagonist Jyn Erso who the movie seems to be centered around.
[h/t Bro Bible]
