Rogue One: Mads Mikkelsen Confirms Flashbacks and Iconic Characters

Fresh off his interview with Sky Atlantic, actor Mads Mikkelsen has now confirmed that there will be flashbacks and iconic characters in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story…

Casino Royale and Hannibal actor Mads Mikkelsen recently gave a treat to Star Wars fans, when he confirmed the rumor that he was in fact portraying Felicity Jones’ character’s father. Jones plays criminal turned Rebel, Jyn Erso, and Mikkelsen will portray her father.  Now, the actor is diving in with both feet, and revealing more information about playing the elder Erso, and how there will be iconic Star Wars characters in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The Evening Standard got the story, and asked Mikkelsen if Original Trilogy actors Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Carrie Fisher (Leia), or other members from that original cast were in the film:

"“Some of them – but I would reveal too much. There are iconic characters in our film and also characters you have never heard of. It’s a mix.”"

Rogue One takes place before the events of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, and we’ve already seen Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly), in the first trailer. Mikkelsen also talked about those flashbacks, which were not confirmed until now:

"“I spend a lot of time with [Jones] and she’s a wonderful actress. I play her dad at the time of Felicity and I play her dad when she’s younger, so we jump back and forth in time.”"

Mikkelsen goes on to talk about not ever having watched any of the Star Wars films, which may come as a bit of a shock to many fans, but he did sit down after filming, and watched them all.

"“When I was a kid you were in that universe or you were into Bruce Lee. And I was Bruce Lee. I filmed the whole thing and then I watched it. It’s nice sometimes when you don’t have any references. This is a script and we’re making a film. The flavour of the film has to be in the script – I’m not just going to take it because of the franchise. There were a lot of references in the script where I had to tap someone on the shoulder and go ‘I haven’t seen the other films’.”"

Mikkelsen was asked if it was hard to keep his role in Rogue One and Marvel’s Doctor Strange a secret, to which he jokingly said that once he’s a couple drinks he starts blabbing…but then seriously said that once you’ve seen someone fired for talking about a secret project, that’s enough to make you shut up.

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So now we know, there will be flashbacks in Rogue One, as well as iconic Star Wars characters that fans will recognize — much like Mon Mothma — and there will be references to previous Star Wars films. And, seeing as how the film takes place between Episode III and Episode IV, that makes a whole lot of sense. Now we anxiously await Rogue One‘s theatrical debut in December of this year.