Happy Friday, Star Wars fans! We’re here to take a first look at the new character Moroff in Star Wars Rogue One. Proceed with caution, as there could be potentially spoilery speculation below.
A couple days ago, Jedi Temple Archives leaked some toy packaging that gives a little glimpse at some new characters. The character Pao is among them, and he is very likely to be a pretty major character given the fact that he is in the leaked promotional group shot. Pao is the guy with the huge mouth.
The other character that is revealed is Moroff. Moroff is a big lumbering guy with long white hair. He has been described as a cross between a Wookiee and a Wompa. Here is the box:
I was a little surprised to see him with as much prominence as the character Pao, who we’ve seen in other prominent material. We first saw Moroff in the Behind the Scenes video for Rogue One, and we only got a glimpse. Here is a slowed down version of the clip he’s in:
There is something very Henson-esque about this guy. Something very “Labrynth” about him, like his walk. He has sort of a lumbering gait, swaying a little and his hair seems to flow with his strides. From the comparison to the Stormtrooper, we can see that Moroff is very tall, like 7 feet tall. There’s something gosh darn endearing about this guy. I can only imagine he’ll turn out to be a fan favorite. From a close-up of the packaging, we can get a clear view of his mouth piece:
So clearly this guy has some sort of armor, or maybe breathing device covering his mouth. This reminds of a little of the Jedi’s under water breathing device, the A99 aquata. That is, I don’t think it looks like it, but at least there is some support in canon for a small device that’s capable of filtering breathable gas. Could this guy be from a planet that has some different gas for breathing or is this just protective head gear? We get another glimpse of his headgear and chest-armor in this shot, as well as a glimpse of some of his weaponry:
These guns are huge, maybe even bigger than Baze’s gun! The interesting thing is the action figure has a backpack gear with the guns attached. It appears if you look closely the BTS clip that he is also wearing the backpack there, although we can’t see the side guns out, it does appear that he has another weapon attached to his pack. Looking closely, it is pretty clear that this is his rifle that comes with the action figure, pictured in his hand here next to his pack:
Of course, it is clear from the BTS shot that the pack is much smaller onscreen. There is a little uncertainty about what planet we will see him on because the BTS footage only shows a black background. However, his weaponry are consistent with Rebel gear, and in many ways the large weaponry would fit in nicely with the Rebels on Scariff. For example, there is some amount of similarity in tone to the character Bistan, shown here firing a weapon out of a Rebel aircraft:
So, because Moroff has some pretty big weaponry, I venture to speculate that he will be fighting with the Rebels. He could also be on Jedha, and be some sort of follower o the Force, but I doubt this because there is no indication of a huge battle with a lot of major weaponry on Jedha. That part of the movie on Jedha, at least based on the footage we have, seems to be smaller hand-to-hand combat. There is also the fact that Moroff comes with the Scariff Storm Trooper, although this isn’t hard proof because they often mix and match these kinds of packs.
I don’t think that Moroff is a Wookiee, but he has some similarities. The length of his fur is definitely as long as a Wookiee, and of a similar texture. However, the shape of his face seems different. I suppose you never know. His headgear could be masking the similarity.
I can’t help but think about the name. Moroff. Does this mean, that he isn’t a “Moron”? He is “More-off”? Or is this just a funny set of syllables with no meaning. For now, it appears that Moroff is a cool, Rebel fighter, that is packing some serious weaponry, and is fighting alongside our heroes in the scenes on Scariff. Fans have already begun to speculate about this character, but there is no databank entry, or as of this writing a Wookieepedia article, because nothing is known. One point that caught my eye that I hadn’t thought of already was that of CrazyOldJedi saying that he could be part of Saw’s mob on Jedha. This is certainly possible, and if Forest Whitaker’s shots were filmed at Pinewood, then that would be consistent with the fact that Moroff’s BTS footage was in a studio. I can’t find any evidence that Whitaker filmed his scenes in Pinewood, but any or both of these scenarios are possible.
He certainly could be just one of those blink-and-you-miss-him characters, or he could be in multiple shots. No way to know at this point, but speculation is half the fun.
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