If we learned anything from the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story panel at Star Wars Celebration, it’s that Gwendoline Christie should moderate all panels, all fandoms, from here on out. Her excitement was infectious as she introduced the Rogue One cast, navigated her way around some “reveals” (most of which we already knew), and showed off a fun sizzle reel from the next Star Wars adventure coming to theaters this December. Here are the highlights!
Ben Mendelsohn pulled a Loki and came out fully in-character as Director Orson Krennic, complete with that badass cape and mugging for the camera:
Christie did the honors of handing Felicity Jones the first Rogue One action figure, Jyn Erso:
This hilarious behind-the-scenes photo from filming in the London Tube at 4 a.m. right before it opened up for commuters:
Director Gareth Edwards confirmed several points that had already leaked: Mads Mikkelsen’s character Galen Erso is indeed Jyn’s father, but he’s also a scientist who, according to Mikkelsen’s tease, “at one point invented something so beautiful that it could change the universe.” Could that have been the Death Star?
Speaking of, here’s the new poster for Rogue One, which is unusual but cool:
The other confirmation is that Darth Vader (voiced by James Earl Jones, of course) appears in the film.
Other fun tidbits:
- Extras dressed as Stormtroopers on-set had no idea what Stormtroopers were, let alone Star Wars.
- Alan Tudyk’s character K-2SO is a reprogrammed Imperial droid with quite the attitude.
- Baze Malbus (Wen Jiang) and Chirrut Îmwe (Donnie Yen) sound like our new favorite duo: Chirrut is blind and believes in the Force, while Baze is a skeptic but acts as his eyes.
- This creepy laughing alien:
Christie adorably tried to take a selfie:
On a more serious note, the panel began with an extremely touching moment: when Gwendoline Christie asked for a moment of silence to acknowledge the violence in Nice, France, some of the audience members began singing “La Marseillaise”, and the entire crowd joined in, either through singing or applause.
Kathleen Kennedy shared this behind-the-scenes sizzle reel that will be incredibly fun for those who love to watch how Star Wars actually gets made:
The clip got shown three times, meaning that the folks at Star Wars Celebration got to see the new trailer. The video will presumably drop later today, but in the meantime here’s some intel from Mashable writer Chris Taylor:
Trailer concluded with first glimpse of Darth Vader in the movie … upside down and in reflection for like one second. #RogueOne #SWCE
— Chris Taylor (@FutureBoy) July 15, 2016
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story comes to theaters December 16.