If there is one thing that has held true in the Star Wars universe, it is that spoilers are highly discouraged. Star Wars cast members have to sign confidentiality agreements, scripts are carefully guarded, and no one is allowed to say anything to spoil the movie. That makes the Rogue One spoilers that one cast member just dropped at San Diego Comic-Con very interesting, and those spoilers might earn the cast member some serious heat from the studio.
The Rogue One panel at Comic-Con featured a new poster, a new Rogue One teaser trailer, and some of the cast members and crew talking about the new Star War s movie. Twitter kept everyone who wasn’t at the event up to date on what cast members were there and what they were saying. That is when numerous online critics stopped their coverage to ponder the fact that Jiang Wen spoiled one major character’s death for the Star Wars movie.
Do not read any further if you do not want to know the Rogue One spoilers.
When it comes to Rogue One spoilers, it really shouldn’t come as any surprise to anyone who has followed the Star Wars spinoff that this is a prequel to the first Star Wars movie, A New Hope . That means that most of the people who were not seen in New Hope , Empire Strikes Back , or Return of the Jedi , probably didn’t matter much after this movie. With that said, when a Rogue One spoiler reveals that a major character will die in the movie, months before the new Star Wars movie comes out, it makes it hard to really invest in that character.
Jiang Wen plays one of the freedom fighters from Rogue One . The plot has made it pretty clear that these freedom fighters are on their way to steal the plans of the Death Star in order to help the Rebel forces destroy it in Star Wars: A New Hope . This is a suicide mission, and most the heroes will probably die in the movie because that is how suicide missions work. However, Wen revealed in the Rogue One panel that Donnie Yen’s character, a freedom fighter named Chirrut Îmwe, will die in the movie.
George Lucas visited the #RogueOne set, & kept teasing Gareth Edwards by jokingly criticizing everything. #StarWars pic.twitter.com/9hEeldJdBz
— Adam B. Vary (@adambvary) July 15, 2016
There have been few Rogue One spoilers about Donnie Yen’s character, and all that was really known about him was that he looked amazing in the trailers fighting. Making Star Wars reported that he would play an “important” character in the movie. If he is important, that makes the Rogue One spoiler that he will die a pretty important one. That is probably why Yen did a face palm next to Wen after the Rogue One spoilers were dropped.
It is fair to understand that the rest of the Rogue One Comic-Con panel was uneventful. Most of the time, when actors were asked a question, they all turned to Star Wars producer Kathleen Kennedy and Rogue One director Gareth Edwards to make sure whether or not it was a question that they were allowed to answer or not. That means that Rogue One anecdotes were ok, but anything about the next Star Wars movie was really off limits. One has to wonder if dropping these Rogue One spoilers will cost Jiang Wen anything in the long run.
Not sure how I feel about the #RogueOne poster. Why is the war depicted so bright and cheery? pic.twitter.com/tTOhIp3mhl
— Brock 182 (@brockmclaughlin) July 15, 2016
Outside of the Rogue One spoilers, there were some funny anecdotes from the Star Wars Comic-Con panel. For example, Gareth Edwards said that George Lucas came to watch Rogue One filming and made sarcastic insults the entire time, something that just seems perfect for Lucas and this entire film production. It seems to have been harmless, though, and all in jest, as Edwards said the entire thing was only possible thanks to George Lucas.
After this Rogue One spoilers snafu, don’t expect to hear too much more from the cast and crew until they are ready to promote the next Star Wars release this Christmas. Also, expect them to have clear orders on what they can say, and what isn’t allowed pertaining to Rogue One spoilers. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story comes out on Dec. 16 in the United States.
[Image via Disney]