New Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Images Confirm Richard E. Grant’s Role

It should come as no surprise when an actor of English descent is cast in a Star Wars movie what type of role they’ll be playing. Few have taken on roles that aren’t among the Empire or First Order when using their traditional accents (Daisy Ridley’s Rey a notable exception to the rule), so today’s news shouldn’t be much of a surprise. Entertainment Weekly has revealed a new batch of photos from the upcoming Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, offering a fresh look at new characters from the film and confirming their names of some along the way, among them, Paddington 2 star Richard E. Grant.

The new photo features our first official look at Grant’s character in the film, and confirms his name, revealed as “First Order Allegiant General Pryde.” This rank is unique for the movie and the first of its kind in the Star Wars universe. As previously revealed in the Vanity Fair article about the film, Grant’s character will likely share many scenes with Domnhall Gleeson’s General Hux and perhaps the new Supreme Leader himself, Kylo Ren. Check out the new photo below!

Grant previously implied that his character would be a part of the First Order as well, especially given the very specific audition material he used for booking the role.

“I got sent a 10-page generic sort of, I think, it was an interrogation scene clearly from a 1940s British B-picture because the references were not Star Wars and the language was something that my grandfather would have spoken in and I thought, you know, the three contrasting scenes that you were supposed to show as much versatility you could muster in a self-taping situation,” the actor shared with the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “So I did that and sent it off and it goes into cyberspace and you don’t even think about it again because it’s what actors, you know, what you do all the time, you audition, send stuff out and never hear [back].”

With both the Galactic Empire and the First Order being modeled after World War II-era military organizations, fans immediately started speculating that he would be a villain, and they were right!

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is directed by J.J. Abrams and also stars Daisey Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Kelly Marie Tran, Carrie Fisher, Ian McDiarmid, Billy Dee Williams, Joonas Suotamo, Anthony Daniels, Jimmy Vee, Dave Chapman, Brian Herring, Mark Hamill, Billie Lourd, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Keri Russell, Dominic Monaghan, and Greg Grunberg. You can check out the official description below.

“Lucasfilm and director J.J. Abrams join forces once again to take viewers on an epic journey to a galaxy far, far away with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the riveting conclusion of the seminal Skywalker saga, where new legends will be born and the final battle for freedom is yet to come. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker opens in U.S. theaters on December 20.”

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters on December 20th.

Star Wars is also headed to the Disney+ streaming service. The Mandalorian is now streaming on DIsney+. A show following Obi-Wan Kenobi is in the works, with Ewan MacGregor returning to the role. A series about Rogue One‘s Cassian Andor is also in development.