Alan Tudyk is no stranger to science fiction. He’s best known for his role on the TV series Firefly, but he’s also voiced CG characters in Frozen, Wreck-It Ralph, Moana, and more. And while he’s already played a CGI robot in iRobot, he’s about to steal the show as a robot of a different kind in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. K-2SO is a 7-foot tall reprogrammed Imperial droid, but that doesn’t mean he takes instruction from human masters well. And Tudyk brings the soon-to-be fan favorite to life on the big screen this week.
Alongside him is Riz Ahmed as Bodhi Rook. Riz has had notable roles with Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler and Matt Damon in Jason Bourne, (and he just received a SAG Awards nomination for The Night Of), but his role in Rogue One may be his biggest to date. He plays a defecting Imperial cargo pilot who sets in motions the events of this Star Wars story. The actor / rapper sat alongside Tudyk to talk with me about their adventure in a galaxy far, far away.
From Lucasfilm comes the first of the Star Wars standalone films, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, an all-new epic adventure. In a time of conflict, a group of unlikely heroes band together on a mission to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Empire’s ultimate weapon of destruction. This key event in the Star Wars timeline brings together ordinary people who choose to do extraordinary things, and in doing so, become part of something greater than themselves.
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Felicity Jones stars alongside Mads Mikkelsen, who plays her father, Galen Erso. Diego Luna (Milk) stars as Captain Cassian Andor, with Donnie Yen (Ip Man, Blade II) as the blind spiritual warrior Chirrut Imwe, Jiang Wen (Let the Bullets Fly, Devils on the Doorstep) as his heavily armored best friend Baze Malbus, Alan Tudyk (Firefly) as the droid K-2SO, Riz Ahmed (Nightcrawler, Four Lions) as the Rebel pilot Bodhi Rook, plus Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland) as Saw Gerrera, a character first introduced in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and Ben Mendelsohn (Bloodline, Mississippi Grind) as the film’s main antagonist, Director Orson Krennic.
The Walt Disney Studios will release Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in theaters on December 16, 2016.