Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is only five months away, so Star Wars Celebration Europe 2016 – which began on Thursday night – marked the perfect occasion to release new information about the stand-alone movie that will tell the story of the events leading up to the original Star Wars.
Up until this point, we’ve learned that Rogue One follows a group of freedom fighters who steal the plans to the Death Star. Though the war scenes happen entirely on the ground, it still promises action-packed scenes. In the midst of all the exciting clips, we’ve only seen glimpses of Diego Luna‘s Cassian Andor, which is expected as Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) will guide us through this world.
On Friday, Diego and the rest of his castmates attended a London panel to talk about the upcoming movie. Moderated by Gwendoline Christie (aka Star Wars: The Force Awakens‘ baddie Captain Phasma), here’s every bit of information on Cassian Andor we could squeeze out.
RELATED: We Hung Out With Diego Luna at Sundance and He Bared His Soul
1
Diego Luna is legitimately excited.
When asked about his character, Luna made it a point to first explain how happy he felt. “I just want to say I’ve been waiting for this night for quite a long time,” he said. “This is what got me into this project, the chance to share this energy. It’s fantastic.” You could tell that he enjoyed the crowd’s passion. And unlike his character, who we’re convinced won’t smile once in the film, Luna fully geeked out.
2
Like Oscar Isaac's Poe Dameron, Cassian's bff is a droid.
The Star Wars Universe has memorable droids, including C-3PO, R2-D2, and Dameron’s BB-8, but none have been quite like Cassian’s bff, K-2SO – a 7-foot-tall re-programmed Imperial droid. Luna revealed that the droid is “probably the best friend Cassian has in the rebellion, or the only one.” As a result of the reprogramming “he’s not quite all there,” according to Alan Tudyk, the voice of K-2SO. For Star Wars fans, Tudyk’s description of a droid who “speaks his mind and says thing that can be unsettling, and just very honest” may remind them of HK-47 from Star Wars: The Old Republic, which means he’ll provide comic relief, meatbags.
3
Cassian is the squad's dad.
Luna’s description shows that while the main character might be Felicity Jones’ Jyn Erso, Captain Cassian Andor will be the leader tasked with keeping the team in line. “The team starts being just the two of them, Jyn and Cassian, but as the story continues the team grows, and like any team there’s frictions, there’s issues, and it’s Cassian who has to keep them together,” he said.
4
There's new slo-mo footage of Luna and the rest of the cast.
It wouldn’t be a panel without new footage, and what we were shown continues to establish the tone of Rogue One as a gritty war movie. There’s plenty of shots of Luna and Jones in action, so get ready for those Cassian and Jyn shippers to take over the internet. If you want to see the cast running in slow motion, this is the Star Wars for you.
5
His family is adorable.
As Diego Luna walked on stage, Camila Sodi (the mother of his children) snapped a photo at the event. It was cute AF.