'Star Wars: Rogue One' Spinoff Movies News, Cast Confirmed in Set Photo? Mads Mikkelsen & More

The first of many movies in the Star Wars Anthology standalone, spinoff projects, Rogue One from director Gareth Edwards, has a release date set for December 16, 2016 (about a year after 2015's The Force Awakens from director J.J. Abrams), but this week's D23 Expo provided fans some amazing details on the cast and plot of this new film. According to an official press release and numerous reports coming out of D23, we can confirm some previously rumored and brand new casting news today! Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Forest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk and Riz Ahmed are our stars of Rogue One! Read more on this news below!

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Jones was the only confirmed star for quite some time, with Mendelsohn, Luna, Yen, Whitaker and Ahmed topping speculation around the cast list. News that Mikkelsen, the star of NBC's recently cancelled but highly acclaimed series Hannibal, joining the cast is both a surprise and one of the more exciting signing for the project (via Variety).

What does this casting news mean for the film? Well, we know very little about what characters will appear in the film, but we can imagine that this heist film will be one of the best of 2016.

Let us know what you think of this news in the comments section below!

Check out the official cast photo featuring Jones, Luna, Yen and more right here:

"Rogue One takes place before the events of Star Wars: A New Hope and will be a departure from the saga films but have elements that are familiar to the Star Wars universe," Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm, said in an official statement, according to The Guardian. "It goes into new territory, exploring the galactic struggle from a ground-war perspective while maintaining that essential Star Wars feel that fans have come to know. Gareth is such an innovative director and I'm so excited to be working with him and the extraordinary ensemble cast he's selected for 'Rogue One.'"