Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – Who Is The Mysterious Hooded Figure?

Who is the mysterious hooded figure kneeling in the scene with red Imperials guards in the Rogue One trailer?

The figure appears to be wearing a hood instead of a helmet, which rules out Darth Vader. But with the red guards, who are the personal guards of Emperor Palpatine, there’s no doubt it’s a servant of the Emperor kneeling before that fog-enshrouded tank. So if it’s not Darth Vader, who is it?

I know what you’re thinking, and if I had a dollar for every time someone suggested it was Snoke, I’d be a rich fangirl. I highly doubt it’s Snoke in any case, because if it were Andy Serkis would be billed on the cast list. There are other, more plausible options. The figure could be an Inquisitor, some other type of elite Imperial assassin, the Grand Admiral we saw in the trailer wearing a disguise, or perhaps someone who’s not directly affiliated with the Empire, yet is willing to work with and be subservient to Palpatine.

It’s less likely the figure is an Inquisitor, simply because Rogue One director Gareth Edwards and Story Group member Pablo Hidalgo suggested the Jedi would have little to no place in Rogue One; and with no Jedi to fight, there’s no need to bring in an Inquisitor. One of the characters wields a staff, so an Inquisitor might be brought in to duel him. It’s not been implied that the staff-wielder, played by Donnie Yen, is Force sensitive, though, and if he isn’t, then the Empire may not see the practicality of bringing in Force sensitive reinforcements to end him.

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Aside from an Inquisitor, all other options seem fair game. I will say that the figure looks too broad to be Ben Mendelsohn’s Grand Admiral character; and besides, the latter is already rocking that white cape. Perhaps the new villain is Mads Mikkelsen’s character. Mikkelsen is already experienced at playing creepy villains (the titular character of Hannibal is perhaps his most well-known role in the U.S.), so I can imagine him blowing the role of a dark and dangerous servant of the Emperor out of the park.

Speaking of the Emperor: Is that Palpatine the figure is kneeling to? The presence of the red guards seems to suggest that. The tank they’re guarding looks like a bacta tank or perhaps some form of carbonite freezing chamber. If it’s either of those, or any kind of vessel meant to hold a being, and Palpatine is inside, we have to speculate about why he’s in there. Perhaps he was wounded while probing the galaxy for more secrets from the dark side and is now using the tank to recover. Or maybe the person in that tank, if it is a tank and if anyone is inside, is not Palpatine but someone close to him, someone with enough authority and power to prompt the dark figure to kneel before him and to warrant protection from the Emperor’s personal guards. Could it be that the person in the tank, and not the dark figure, is Darth Vader, healing from some wounds sustained during a battle or a mission, or even a fight with a Jedi?

Next: Watch: The First Official Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Trailer

There are so many different answers to these questions, and there’s just not enough information in this one screenshot for us to confidently speculate one way or another who the dark figure or the person he’s kneeling to is. We can only hope that Star Wars Celebration in London in July will give us a hint as to what’s really going on in this tantalizing scene.