by Justin Cook
Nightcrawler actor Riz Ahmed and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire actor Sam Claflin are circling roles in Lucasfilm’s upcoming standalone Star Wars film Star Wars: Rogue One.
Gareth Edwards, director of last year’s Godzilla, will be directing the film. Felicity Jones, best known for her Academy Award-nominated performance in The Theory of Everything, has been confirmed to star in the film as a Rebel soldier, while The Place Beyond the Pines actor Ben Mendelsohn is expected to join the cast as well.
Cinderella writer Chris Weitz is set to pen the script, which is based off of a story from the film’s executive producer John Knoll. Kathleen Kennedy and Tony To will produce the project.
As announced at Star Wars Celebration 2015 last week, in Rogue One “a rogue band of fighters come together to steal the death star plans.” The film takes place between Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope.
Rogue One will also be the first film in a series called Star Wars Anthology, which are films that explore the stories that exist within the Star Wars universe.
In the past, Claflin has starred in such big-budget films as Snow White and the Huntsman, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.
Ahmed, on the other hand, starred in last year’s well-received thriller Nightcrawler, as well as many other smaller films, including Closed Circuit, Four Lions, and The Reluctant Fundamentalist.
Badass Digest first reported that Ahmed was involved with the project, but they also said that the film will have a very large cast, similar to The Magnificent Seven or Dirty Dozen.
Star Wars: Rogue One will hit theaters on December 16, 2016.
Sources: Badass Digest, The Wrap, Star Wars
