WARNING: The following contains possible spoilers for "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story."
Mads Mikkelsen has made his career off playing nefarious villains. American audiences are probably most familiar with him as the primary antagonist in James Bond's "Casino Royale" and as the titular cannibal on NBC's "Hannibal." Seeing this career trend and the talent Mikkelsen has for bringing bad guys to life, many assumed he would be the villain of Lucasfilm's "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story." However, that may no longer be the case.
While speaking with a Danish news outlet, Mikkelsen shared one crucial bit of information about his role, saying, "No, my character is actually not a bad guy."
Normally, we'd chalk this up to intentional misdirection, but a recent rumor surrounding Mikkelsen's character has us thinking that he may be telling the truth.
Making Star Wars reported a few weeks back that while Mikkelsen's character has made some pretty drastic mistakes in his life, "Rogue One" will find him steering toward redemption. Mikkelsen will reportedly play the father of protagonist Felicity Jones' character and will be the major catalyst for the events in the film.
"Mads Mikkelsen (Galen appears to be his name iDen the film) is kind of the key to the film in a way," MSW's Jason Ward wrote. "He is a scientist that took over the Geonosian Death Star project. He solved several of the flaws the Empire could not and is sort of a revered person in the Empire for his contributions. However, Mikkelsen's character is a Robert Oppenheimer-type character. Oppenheimer helped design the atomic bomb only to say, 'Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' The guilt 'Galen feels' for his contributions to the Empire become too much and he defects, attempting to make things right."
Family drama has always been a part of the "Star Wars" DNA, and it seems as if that will not change with "Rogue One." If MSW and Mikkelsen himself are to be believed, this father-daughter relationship will be at the center of the movie. It will be interesting to see Mikkelsen finally have the opportunity to play a good guy for once after all his previous hair-raising turns as villains.
"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" will arrive on Dec. 16.
