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‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ Finally Goes There: Disney Intros First Gay Characters [Spoilers]

By Aric Mitchell
Published on: 02:25 PST, Dec 17, 2016

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story tells the tale of a small group of rebels, who go on a suicide mission to attain plans for the Empire’s first Death Star battle station seen in the first movie from 1977.

If the headline did not adequately warn you, this article will have plenty of spoilers, so save for a later date if you still need to see the film.

Now, considering Rogue One takes place before the events of A New Hope, considering you know how that film turns out, and considering Disney had decided to reuse none of the characters and make this a standalone tale, you probably already know that a lot of good guys die in this one.

One top critic at Rotten Tomatoes even acknowledged he knew exactly where the movie was going before stepping foot into the theater without learning many of the particulars ahead of time.

That is a reality director Gareth Edwards’ film does not shy away from. Edwards is not trying to shock you with major reveals here, but he does do some surprising things within the arc of the film.

For starters, his uses of Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin go well beyond cameo and trickery. Vader’s costume has been painstakingly recreated to match the look of A New Hope, and even though he sounds older — James Earl Jones continues doing the voice, but there have been 40 years between this and his first attempt — it’s somewhat convincing.

But even more convincing — and amazing — is Tarkin’s role as a major character.

Peter Cushing, the actor who played Tarkin, died in 1994. Edwards’ FX team was able to overlay Cushing’s likeness onto the face of actor Guy Henry while voice actor Stephen Stanton provided Tarkin’s speech, Screen Rant notes.

But aside from those two nuggets, Rogue One also gave fans a surprise in its first depiction of two gay characters on screen. And as with Vader and Tarkin, these gay characters did not have passing roles. They were two of the most heroic in the film, and their relationship was handled so matter-of-factly that few have noticed.

Vulture‘s Kyle Buchanan was the first to point it out online, but the overtures between Chirrut (Donnie Yen) and Baze (Jiang Wen) are fairly obvious.

The two have, as Buchanan points out, an “old married couple vibe” in which Chirrut is a spiritual center and Baze is his fierce protector.

That’s not to say Chirrut is a helpless character — far from it. He fights with the skill of a Jedi in spite of the fact he is not one and is blind.

Some have speculated that Baze feels drawn to protect his friend because of this blindness, but it is clear from Chirrut’s ability, he doesn’t need it.

Baze watches out for him more as an act of love than duty, a revelation that hits home in the film’s third act when Chirrut, a fierce believer in the Force, sacrifices himself for the Rogue One mission.

A distraught Baze decides then that his own life is over, but before he calls it a day, he allows Chirrut’s Force incantations to break through his stony disbelief, deciding “I am one with the Force. The Force is with me.”

A surface reading of that moment might find Baze finally believes, but that isn’t how belief works. If you look deeper, he is saying this not because of some sudden epiphany, but because he is ready to be one with Chirrut in death as he was in life.

It’s a surprising moment, and perhaps the most moving in Rogue One, not only because it’s where the true nature of Chirrut and Baze’s relationship pays off, but also because of how artfully Edwards is able to place it there without offending anyone.

Given the bipartisan acceptance of the Star Wars film series, Disney was bound to run into issues addressing a same-sex relationship in any sort of meaningful way. However, in the hands of the Rogue One director, they were able to do so, and the expected “controversy” has been nonexistent.

Have you seen Rogue One? What did you think of how Disney depicted the franchise’s first gay characters? Sound off in the comments section below.

[Featured Image by Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Disney/Lucasfilm]

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