Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Adds a New Cast Member and More
Via Nerdist.com:
Lots of tasty Rogue One tidbits have arrived online, starting with the film’s latest cast member, Scottish supermodel Eunice Olumide.
Olumide has revealed that she’s joined the production in a couple of new interviews which reinforce what we’ve been told about Rogue One being a true war movie. At the Zero Waste Scotland campaign, Olumide remarked to the Edinburgh Evening News, “I did a small feature in Star Wars Rogue One. That was a really awesome experience. I don’t have lines but it was an incredible experience to be part of such an iconic film.”
She adds, “I was originally supposed to play a nomad, but since I’m athletic I ended up playing a rebellion leader…There’s a small scene where I run and there’s a tank that comes after me with 20 stormtroopers. There’s loads of explosions… I kept getting a fright whenever the explosions went off.”
Lines or no, Olumide clearly made her mark on the Star Wars canon: “If my scene gets cut or not cut I was entered into the George Lucas Archives. I got into a 3D scanner and they did a scan… They scan all the characters so they can reproduce individual toys or computer games. I will be a toy. It was an amazing experience.”
In Scotland’s Herald, the model-turned-actress commented, “I did not get any lines, but I got to wear this really outlandish costume and run through a bar while a tank comes after us. The about 20 stormtroopers pile out and there’s lots of explosions. I have this sort of mushroom on my head.”
Mushroom, eh? Hmmm… Hey, speaking of headwear, Making Star Wars has an explanation of the helmets in that photo that Rogue One star Donnie Yen posted a while back on social media, which was quickly taken down (see picture below).
Regarding the helmet on the right, the site claims, “It is a combination of a Scout Trooper (Biker Scout) with Stormtrooper parts… On set they were called ‘Sandtroopers’… It has a lot of soft parts like a Scout Trooper including similar chest armor, but more narrow around the hips… It has the same kneepad as the classic Sandtrooper… It has some accent of color like dark red on a panel.”
As for the helmet on the left, it belongs to the film’s “Death Troopers,” who wear all-black armor accented by green lights. “The green lights look really cool against the black armor,” claims the site. “When casting the Death Troopers they were looking for actors around 6’3? so they’re pretty big (TFA Stormtroopers are 5’10” for comparison).”
Making Star Wars further claims that these Death Troopers will be the face of Rogue One‘s merchandise and marketing campaigns. The site has a decent track record when it comes to intel. So for the time being at least, I’m inclined to believe them.