Ben Mendelsohn Still Hasn’t Officially Signed for Rogue One.
For some time now Ben Mendelsohn has been rumored to play the lead role in the first Star Wars Anthology movie – Rogue One. Back in April, the Australian actor revealed that while there was indeed some chatter between him and LFL, no offer has been made. Now 2 months later it appears things haven’t changed…
From Deadline:
You’ve played a series of villains recently—do you seek out those roles?
It’s simple, it’s Animal Kingdom. It’s the after effect of that. I think once these associations start to take place, they take place. It wasn’t like I was doing a bunch of them before Animal Kingdom, either. I was playing dads and boyfriends, but (in) the post-Animal Kingdom landscape, no.
What’s the latest on the Star Wars: Rogue One situation? Are you doing it?
Well… I know that it’s something that’s being talked about. That’s what I definitely know. I’m waiting for them to call me and say, “Hey, here’s the start date,” but you know, none of that’s yet taken place, but you know I’d be very happy to do it, let’s put it that way.
Obviously Mendelsohn is very good at playing villains. If he gets the part in Rogue One, he probably will be the movie’s main villain.
Founder of SWNN, MNN and The Cantina forums.
Born on April 24, 1980.
Animal Kingdom needs looking at methinks.
He is Tarkin , isn’t he ?
Nope
You may hire when ready.
it’s not yet operational
The paint’s still wet on the practical effects.
It’s weird, in that photo, Mendelson looks exactly halfway between David Spade and young Gary Oldman, I think it’s the hair.
Yes, I am bored.
I seriously almost thought it was Gary oldman before I read the title lol
I just had to come here and leave a comment – I was getting a really strong Gary Oldman vibe too from Ben’s enclosed picture…
It would be fantastic to enjoy this movie this December one week before TFA. 🙂
I love the cast and everything about it… so far.
my understanding is budget for Anthology movie is far less than episode movie. That’s one of reasons why casting negotiation took so long.
Considering the boxoffice potential of each movie I doubt Disney will go cheap on any SW movie….especially the first non-EP one.
I have no clue what character he is supposed to be when we are being told side-stories of young Han Solo/Boba Fett, princess Leia/Organa politics, and Luke Skywalker/Wedge. To me whomever secondary characters they choose is not as important as who they get to fill the shoes of our characters of interest.
Then please replace him with Forest Whitaker!!! I just want to see one badass black Imperial before I die.
Also, as an Empire fan/supporter, it will make it easier for me to cosplay!
Why would you support a regime that would destroy and entire world and billions of people just to instill fear in order to bully and dominate trillions more?
I Get the cosplay though. Despite what people want to believe, skin color does matter.
It’s a movie. The Empire didn’t kill anyone except in the head of George Lucas. I also seem to remember Luke and Lando destroying a couple of heavily populated Death Stars. To say nothing of The Republic being corrupt and looking the other way on slavery, etc.
People love The Joker, Vader, Ric Flair, Khan, Moriarity, Megatron, etc. Villians are awesome, they are usually the best parts.
Yes I get the cool factor of villains and I really enjoy watching them be devious, but I would never say that I “support” them.
I heard some statistic that while the Death Star has the same size as a small moon, the actual usable space INSIDE is BIGGER than the EARTH’s surface area.
So blowing up the Death Star is more or less a 1-for-1 pay-back.
Going by the SW wikia legends entry, it says there was 2,056,685 people on board. I would say that matches somewhat well with what we saw on film with scant population and giant empty spaces. The Death Star was more about displaying power then housing or transportation. So I would say a few hundred more death stars needed to blow up before Imperial losses came anywhere close to matching the innocent lives lost on Alderaan (assuming the planet was as similar to earth on the service as it appeared in space).
We don’t know the population of Alderran. Just because Earth seems overpopulated doesn’t mean every world in Star Wars has that same exact level of human life.
Also, we can’t dismiss the loss of about 5 million lives or more inside the Death Stars. Most of those people were just workers looking to make a living in a chaotic and war torn Galaxy. Most had no idea what the Sith were.
Also, many of the rebel factions weren’t exactly Angels themselves. They often had to cut deals with gangsters and bounty hunters to get things done. And they wanted to restore a Republuc that was deeply corrupt.
As I granted above in my parenthesis, we don’t know how many were on Alderaan OR the Death Star. But all indication was as I wrote above, less then three million. But even if it was 5 million that’s a drop in the bucket compared to the likelihood of the population of a galactic core world chosen as a target for destruction BECAUSE of it’s popularity in order to make an “effective demonstration” of the Death Star’s power.
Now the lives lost on the Death Star are unfortunate but nowhere near as sympathetic nor comparable at all to the loss of innocent and defenseless people like those of Alderaan. Why? Because just like those in the Rebellion, they had a choice, a hard one to be sure, but still a choice to defect and fight for the Rebelion– the cause of peace and freedom for the galaxy– but instead chose to take the easy path and serve the Empire and help enforce their Fascism and oppression of peaceful people and their low concern for life as a whole.
The galaxy took one small step toward peace by their destruction. And I find it amaizing that I even have to explain that.
Dude, first of all, this is a fictional (and somewhat childish) space fantasy. And, of course, if this was a real situation the people of Alderran would be much, much more sympathetic victims. Unquestionably.
Yet, that is the consensus view. As it should be. But when you attempt to lecture me on oppression and Alderran et al, it comes across as needlessly soporific.
In many historical cases Rebels are the good guys. In the US Revolution for example, or in Ireland. But, sometimes “rebels” aren’t the good guys. In the US Civil War or Iraq or Cuba, etc. Sometimes rebels want less freedom and more oppression.
In Star Wars the rebels are the good guys because Star Wars is, at its heart, super simplistic. I just thought I’d bring up a little nuance in a debate about a universe that usually lacks it. Relax, dude.
Super simplistic.. Just like your view on (Northern) Ireland.
I didn’t say Northern Ireland. I said Ireland. I was talking about the Republic of Ireland (and the early 20th century). You stuck in “Northern Ireland” as if that’s what I meant. I don’t support the current IRA in Northern Ireland at all. And no, there is nothing simplistic about that situation.
Northern Ireland and Ireland are two completely different countries and if I wanted to refer to Northern Ireland that’s what I would have written.
He looks like Biggs
He has a mustache in that one photo and all of the sudden he looks like Biggs. Hey and a shaven Forest Whitaker looks identical to Mace Windu,,, You don’t think… wait a second… those maniacs are doing it!
Nah, Forest Whitaker’s nose/eye ratio is more akin to Usher, Samuel L. Jackson’s face is different.
However Whitaker could SORTA pass for J Boyega’s dad, at least by movie-standards.
Why will they bring back Mace Windu ? He loses an hand and got toasted by the Emperor himself, plus he went through the window. He’s fucking dead. RIP He was one of my favourites Jedi Knight, i mean the Motherfucka’ Jedi Style. Like you can’t make fun of me.
But i praise the big Star Wars companies to not forget about such charismatic character like Mara Jade and Kyle Katarn. Bring them baaaaaack ! There are plenty of empty spaces between Ep 6 and Ep 7 for their stories.
I fully believe he’s been cast and signed on the dotted line. I think all this tip-toeing around the subject by LucasFilm and all the potential cast has to do with the agreement they made to not promote the film until after the release of Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. As soon as that film is released and the time frame of the agreement is over, we’ll get a complete cast list dumped on us all at once, similar to what happened when they announced the TFA cast.