Three new actors have been revealed in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, from an unlikely source: trading cards. Thanks to three new autograph cards revealed by Topps, we now know the actors playing three of the more eccentric looking creatures in the film.
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Paul Kasey will play the mercenary “Edrio Two Tubes,” whose look was revealed at Comic-Con International: San Diego. The British actor has a long history of playing creatures in films and television alike. In Doctor Who and spin-offs The Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood, he’s played several creatures and monsters, including featured roles like OOd Sigma and Weevil. He’s also been an infected zombie-style character in 28 Days Later… and a werewolf in Being Human (the original BBC version), so he has copious experience playing characters with prosthetics. In Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Kasey played Ello Asty, the Abednedo X-wing pilot whose name nods to J.J. Abrams favorite band, the Beastie Boys.
Kasey, in fact, had to take off the Two Tubes look when they left Jedha and become another character, a new Mon Calamari named Admiral Raddus. The grey-skinned character is of the same race as Admiral Ackbar (the infamous “It’s a trap!” utterer) will be on e of the Rebel Alliance leaders, and looks a little more seasoned and dignified than Ackbar. Perhaps that’s the well-worn uniform, or the deeper jowles, but he definitely has a story behind those side-mounted eyes.
Finally, the “space monkey” shown off at Star Wars Celebration Europe in London this past July is named Bistan, and played by Nick Kellington. Kellington has also been working in-costume in England, but on children’s programs. He played “Igglepiggle” on the kids series In the Night Garden… and more recently played Dipsy on the 2015 reboot of Teletubbies. It’s safe to say that while Bistan may look a little cuddly, the very nature of him using a mounted blaster (as seen when he was revealed in the behind-the-scenes featurette) makes him a little more adult than Kellington’s other characters.
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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hits US theaters December 16, 2016. Directed by Gareth Edwards, it’s the first of the new standalone features from Lucasfilm and Disney, which take place outside the core “Skywalker Saga” of films noted by an Episode number. Rogue One tells the story of the small band of rebels that were tasked with stealing the plans to the first Death Star. The story spins directly off the opening crawl from the original Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. In that crawl, it read: “Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire’s ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet.”
