While Gareth Edwards’ Star Wars spinoff film, Rogue One, was pretty heavily overshadowed by other Star Wars news and announcements at today’s live-action panel at Disney’s D23 Expo, it did get at least a few moments to shine. The company showed off the first photo of the movie, which apparently just began principal photography, along with a finalized cast list that includes a few interesting surprises.
Specifically, cult TV favorites Mads Mikkelsen and Alan Tudyk have both joined the movie’s roster of talent in as-yet-unannounced roles, with Tudyk apparently reusing his old I Robot motion-capture skills as some sort of digital creature. Mikkelsen—best known for his role as the manipulative, man-eating title character of NBC’s Hannibal—and Tudyk, who rose to fame as plucky space pilot Wash on Fox’s short-lived Firefly, join several other performers who were already either rumored or confirmed to be in the film.
The full cast includes Riz Ahmed, Diego Luna, Felicity Jones, Jiang Wen, and Donnie Yen (all pictured above), as well as Ben Mendelsohn and Forest Whitaker. The movie is set to take place between Revenge Of The Sith and A New Hope, with a crew of rebels working to steal the Death Star plans that act as the central MacGuffin in the original Star Wars. Rogue One, which will be Edwards’ third feature after 2010’s low-budget Monsters and the 2014 Godzilla, is set for a December 16, 2016 release date.