We’ve been hearing for a long time that Rogue One will be unique in that it will contain no Jedi. It will focus strictly on military forces in the Star Wars galaxy. However, now that we are almost a month away, does this still hold up? Read on for more, and beware of spoilers.
There was a recent tweet from of Collider director of development Kristian Harloff stating that there will indeed be a Force-sensitive character in Rogue One, based on reading an early copy of Catalyst: A Rogue One Story. Let’s take a moment to discuss who that could be. Here is the tweet:
Oh shit..big reveal in #catalyst #rogueone Someone is force sensitive, I’ll just say that without spoiling anything.
— KristianHarloff (@KristianHarloff) November 6, 2016
Who could it be? There are a number of obvious, and possibly not-so-obvious possibilities.
Chirrut Imwe
The spiritual warrior of Rogue One. A lot of people jumped to the conclusion that it is Chirrut, since we already know that he is a follower of the Force. Star Wars News Net (SWNN) ran a piece speculating that it is Chirrut, mainly because of the following image from an official sticker book:
SWNN also posted the close-up:
However, they also point out that this conflicts the starwars.com databank entry that explicitly states
“Though he lacks Force abilities, this warrior monk has rigorously honed his body through intense physical and mental discipline.”
Therefore, we kind of have to wonder if this is the real Force-user. Being “attuned” doesn’t mean that you are a Force-user. He may follow the ways of the Force, and follow the guidance of the Force, but he may not be able to control the Force. Check out the SWNN article for more details on these points, and how Pablo’s recent tweets come into play. For now, I’m going out on a limb and suggest that this one is seeming unlikely.
Lyra Erso
The mother of Jyn Erso. In the new International Trailer #2, we get what I believe to be our first glimpse at Jyn’s mother on screen. Check out what she says:
You can hear her say “Trust the Force”. Could it be that Jyn’s mother was a Force-sensitive that also had to remain in hiding? Would such a connection mean that Jyn may also have latent Force-abilities? We don’t know at this point. The necklace that Lyra gives Jyn is Kyber Crystal, which is deeply connected to the Force. It’s possible that Lyra is connected to the Church of the Force, and not a F0rce-sensitive, but could also be a long-lost Jedi for all we know. It is great to see a Kyber crystal on the big screen. In fact, this seems like the first time that a Kyber crystal has been seen in any Star Wars movie!
In all honest, Lyra seems like the most likely scenario given that we know that the Catalyst book focuses on the Erso family.
Baze Malbus
The gun-toting soldier. This is a man of few words, so we can assume that in the movie the character’s basic is very limited. Check out what Jiang Wen says here:
I’m including up to about a minute before the leak. We probably all know the detail about “Chirrut dying” leaked here. But the other thing that caught my eye is the fact that Jiang says about the character Baze:
“[Chirrut] believe, of course, the Force, but my character don’t believe Force at that time. But, I pretend all of them … to do very very big measure (I can not say that). And when [Chirrut] dead, I do something better. Maybe I believe by my action.”
So what is the “action” he is talking about? I believe there is a possibility that Baze actually uses the Force at the end after Chirrut dies. The thing about him saying “my character don’t believe in the Force at that time”, why only at that time? Did he change? Think of what a shock this would be. The guy that doesn’t believe in the Force through the entire movie, and at the end turns out to be Force-sensitive. What a twist! This is pure speculation on my part based on Jiang’s comments, but it makes sense.
We don’t know that this is what happens, but there are some signs that point to it and the speculation is half the fun!
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