Donnie Yen Briefly Talks Rogue One, and Shares an Image with New Trooper Helmets!
Chinese actor Donnie Yen, whose character in Rogue One is depicted as a blind warrior (image above), spoke for the first time about his Star Wars role, after the official cast announcement at D23, and shared an interesting image, probably coming from the new production…
From Straitstimes.com:
The actor is understandably excited about his newest role.
He says: “It’s a good learning experience for me to be in such a big franchise. The very first sci-fi movie I saw when I was a teenager was Star Wars and I never thought that I would be co-starring in one many years later.”
As many of his previous films contain relatively violent fight scenes, he says: “It’s about time I can take my kids to watch my movie. Star Wars is a family movie and I think kids will love it.”
So much for the gritty tone of the movie, that we’ve seen from the teaser trailer and the first cast photo. But hey, Star Wars was always about family and kids, right? 🙂
Now moving on to the more interesting part of the story. According to JediNews, Yen posted a very curious image on his Instagram account.
He also stated the following:
I am the force and I fear nothing 😆 Going to put this in my company’s display room .✌🏼️#donnieyen #甄子丹 #starwar #starwars
Are these helmets from Rogue One? Well, the original Stormtrooper helmet in the middle is definitely in the movie. We’ve seen several photos from the Rogue One set proving that:
And since the other two helmets are like nothing we’ve seen before, I think it is safe to assume that they are from the new movie as well. The designs are really cool. The one on the right reminds me of a modified Biker Scout, and the one on the left of an Imperial Cylon!
What do you think? Do you like the new helmets?
Founder of SWNN, MNN and The Cantina forums.
Born on April 24, 1980.
Love the deserty scout trooper one.
I long for a Rogue One trilogy.
Mikkelsen said: “I can also say that the movie will be shot in Iceland and England.” We know that Sullust was created in Star Wars:Battlefront using Iceland’s Landscape. Maybe they are two new speficic class of Stormtrooper for the volcanic planet.
I feel like they are being more open about Rogue 1. Let’s see how that affects the publicity about the film. I hope they don’t reveal too much though.
Possibly. It would make sense, considering that TFA is the (indescribably anticipated) continuation of the sage, while R1 is the first of the “side stories” in play.
Nonetheless, I am very hyped for this film, even if not as much as TFA.
Don’t forget that gritty doesn’t have to mean blood and violence every second. Star Wars gets away with a lot because of the clean nature of lasers.
People dying from a puff of smoke from the chest isn’t so bad for the kiddies 😛
Bear in mind, there are plenty of jobs in the military that do not involve killing people – something the OT captured pretty well: the behind-the-scenes groundwork needed to run a war, repairs, patrols, technical malfunctions. The PT, in all objectivity, kind of skimmed past these aspects.
I’m hoping “gritty realistic” is code for “non-romantic elbow-grease”.
I agree. This is still going to be a war film. It seems that viewers have always been more concerned about the nature of on-screen violence versus the result. The result of a blaster is decidedly less bloody than a projectile round to the head. The general audience is okay with a scorched chest plate but not blood and brain matter splattered on the wall. The result is the same…the dude is dead, but it’s the way he got dead that’s the kicker. This film will also be absent the many gratuitous f-bombs that most modern war films are known to include. I’m okay with this approach. Language and viscera shouldn’t be what makes a good war epic. As long as this movie has the right tone, feels, and action, I think it will be really great.
Indeed. There can still be plenty of “violence”, but much of it could be via X-Wing/TIE battles and such.
well i never really got why people would say star wars is not violent. i mean Jabba fed poor old Oola to the rancor, even if u dont see a thing, that stuff really had an impact on me as a kid. The Star Wars galaxy is a cruel world. Lambs get cut off, Bounty Hunters get decapitated or shot point blank, kids get slaughtered.. its not because we dont see the violence on screen that its not there.
One should always cut off a lamb who has been drinking too much.
So, true. An intoxicated Lamb is not easy to deal with.
sorry for my bad english guys , its my third language after dutch and french ( im belgian) i ment Limbs of course
Lambs made so much more sense…
So that is the connection! Mikkelsen Hannibal and the Silence of the Limbs. 🙂
Plasma.
But I’m pretty sure it will be pretty fuckin’ violent.
Doubt it will be over the top. It will be a war movie that’s Star Wars. Pretty laid back in its intensity.
Bothans/Asian in appearance maybr or were the bothans only referred to in jedi? Investigate I must………….K Googled it. A New Hope it is.
I hope the new ones are in the movie. I like varieties of trooper helmet/armor.
What would the point be in including new trooper helmet designs if this movie takes place just before episode IV? How will they explain the absence of these designs in the original trilogy? I’m very curious to see how these questions will be answered in the film.
You might as well ask why trooper helmets in other new-canon Imperial stories aren’t in the OT.
We have the two combat drivers in Rebels, the shadow Stormtrooper in Battlefront, the Dark trooper and CW-era Shocktrooper in Commander, the Storm Commandos in Galactic Defense etc.
Maybe it’s all because the Empire is scattered across millions of systems and not every unit is gonna look the same. There were plenty of different Clone Trooper armor sets in the PT/TCW. The Empire is even bigger than that.
…….just because you don’t see these helmets appear in Episode IV doesn’t mean they aren’t being used by the Empire somewhere out there in the galaxy. We see Snowtroopers in ESB but not ANH….does that mean Snowtroopers aren’t canon? LOL no. We see Scout troopers in ROTJ but not ANH….does that mean Scout troopers aren’t canon? LOL no. C’mon, man.
^ This guy makes the best argument. The Empire clearly has a myriad of different trooper armors for different terrain and situations. You only see the ones in the OT that pertain to where they are in each film. If anything, the fact that each film shows new trooper armors that we didn’t see in the previous film or two proves that there are probably several others out there we don’t see at all.
I also think the sandy colored one on the right might be a Rebel helmet, rather than Imperial. It just doesn’t say “Empire” to me, and it doesn’t look completely unsimilar to the new Resistance helmets we’ve glimpsed from the toys.
My thinking is that in ANH the stormtroopers are just regular troops instead of these new sand troopers because they were just right above the planet already. they probably just got their little backpacks and stuff like a “just in case we have to go to a sandy planet” thing. In RO it is also a very serious situation for the empire. they’re gonna pull out the big guns to get the plans back
I agree. I think you have a very good point.
It’s a big galaxy, you can’t see every thing.
Are the stormtroopers gonna have the same voice, like jango fett????
No. It has been established in the new canon that the stormtroopers from the OT were cadets who joined the imperial navy. They are not clones, although there may be a handful of clones still in service. There are even female stormtroopers apparently.
Helmet on the right is probably worn by the rebellion. It looks similar to something you would see them wearing on hoth
For TFA the costume designer was talking about the warmer tones being reserved for the Resistance so you could tell the two sides apart at a glance. I wonder if the same holds true for Rogue One? It looks a lot like the clone scout helmet from ROTS. The rebellion uses whatever tech they can get their hands on, so I also wouldn’t be surprised if we see rebels with this helmet in the film.
Probably but i don’t think so. I see the black “mouth” practically the same as the biker scouts. I think it’s more another trooper class. Hey, probably i’m wrong. 😉 So excited.
Those helmets are insane, I only have found Little references with a John Mollo concept art from ANH.
The double visor seems some earlier concept scouttroopers from ROTJ (Nilo Rodis-Jamero). Even the Little red mark.
Agreed, i think it’s a trooper. It’s very scout trooper-esque, especially in light of the OT concept art AND That red logo also reminds me of the icon that Neyo and the speeder bike recon corp in Clone Wars used.
I love the retro way this is feeling
Yeah, don’t let his comment worry you. Star Wars handles violence very well. Just look at Rebels for recent clarification.
I absolutely LLLLOOVVVE that Desert Helmet, I second the notion that it’s a form of the Biker-Scout.
I really like how they’re EXPANDING what was in the OT. Not retreading, not progressing/degressing, Expanding – and, while different, is still reasonably within the spectrum of the Originals.
Family movie doesn’t necessarily mean not gritty. Star Wars has never had graphic violence (the fight scene at the end of Ep. 3 is as bad as it’s ever been) or sex or swearing. It’s still capable of being gritty, serious and even dark.
Go back and look at ANH again. Now, that was a family flick from the get-go.
And yet, in the first five minutes you have a massive gunfight with a ton of casualties, and then you’ve got Darth Vader audibly snapping the neck of a Rebel commander.
Then about half an hour or 45 minutes later, the main character’s adoptive parents are shown as incinerated corpses.
And those are just off the top of my head. It may not rank with the graphic violence of one of the Saw movies or anything like that, but the original Star Wars film did not shy away from rather graphic violence as long as it served the story.
What Star Wars has always tended to avoid was gratuitous violence. Graphic violence for the sake of graphic violence. That’s what we won’t likely see in Rogue One, and we don’t need to see it in order to get a gritty war movie.
Well said!
It’ll be “gritty” because we’re dealing with underfunded, scrappy renegades who are at war with a brutal military machine. Heck, the entire OT had a decent amount of grittiness.
But thinking that any SW film will be ANYTHING aside from a family-friendly outgoing is foolish. SW has always been for everyone.
And as someone whose very first movie theater experience was my uncle taking me to watch RotJ when I was age three … I’m thankful for that. That is how SW should be and how it will be.
I don’t recall PC meaning anything other than IBM or APPLE back in the ANH era, the portrayal of the characters and their impact on their environment (violent or otherwise) captured the imagination of GENERATIONS of fans… enough said.
Exactly!
Spec force !
Extra special surprise.
They probably won’t get Mel Brooks to sign over the rights to Dark Helmet, but I heard they are trying to adapt his neck tie for the Rogue One Vader suit. Just a rumor…take it with a grain of salt. 😉
Im hoping that these anthology films will be darker in tone. not all Star Wars fan are 7, and I would say a vast majority are now in their 40s……………bring on the hate 🙂
Wow. If this is real I assume he will have questions to answer. Intellectual property rights not really a thing to the Chinese…
Cool images. Hope Rogue One delivers an epic forest planet battle. Episode VII looks to have the desert and frozen planet bases covered.
Very Cool, LOVE the helmets! = )
V interesting! I imagine we don’t have to worry too much about the tone — if you make a career out of martial arts films over 30 years, then I guess a lot of films look pretty tame by comparison.
The helmet on the right looks like a Rebel helmet, it is weathered and ahs red iconography, which is typically reserved for rebels.
BLAk Helmet could be the movies version of a Purge trooper helmet perhaps?
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Purge_Trooper
A tiny part of me worries its going to be a vader mask, and that the rumors that vader is getting a new origin are true and this is like a primitiev version of that mask….
But i sincerelty doubt it … most people wouldnt mess with the iconic nature ofthe vader helmet.
ITs morel ikely they are an imperial commando type of some sort, to be the main enemy. Evil imperial team to counter the rebel team?
Do people actually believe this “Vader getting a new backstory” nonsense? If anyone is actually eating that crap, I have some land I would like to sell you….
I believe the phrase you were looking for is “I have a bridge to sell you” or “I have some ocean front property in oklahoma to sell you” or something like that.
I certainly dont believe it, if only forthe fact that I doubt Vader is going to actually be in the movie, and if he is that he will have any signficant role.
As the movie would be done in ten seconds if he directly encountered these rebels during their mission.
Much as I dislike The Hayden, the last thing Vader needs is MORE disruption to his origin story.
Vader has his story. LEAVE IT ALONE
I only just now heard this rumor and it’s already dumb.
preaching to the choir…
Word. Considering that the PT is canon, anybody who thinks Vader’s origin will be changed is deluded.
I think every Star Wars movie (that deals with the Empire/Resistance)should introduce some new trooper armor or some sort. Even the prequels had different trooper armor.
I hope we get epic space battle, whether it be in the anthologies or the new trilogy. yes, of course story, character, etc….but man, i want EPIC space battle, too 😛
with todays effects and the fact that we’re getting all these movies that have ties and xwings and star destroyers. bring it. 🙂
Yeaah
Agreed.
But could be epic without hundreds of ships. We are talking about the beggining. With 40-50 ships could be epic as well.
And cgi doesn’t look that bad in space or spaceships. So, let’s do great space battles! 😉
With the stormtrooper helmet I was really hoping they would stick with the unsymetrical design of the originals, the 501st can get movie exact armour so I would expect Lucasfilm to be able to. I would like that much attention to detail in Rouge one. For that reason I hope this isn’t a movie helmet
i don’t understand. That helmet is just perfectly okay.
What???? *looks it up*
oh appearently stormtrooper helmets in the original trilogy are slightly asymetical looking, but not because they were designed that way… but because of how they were made..
dude its one thing to be nitpicky about Star Wars, but this takes it to a whole new level…
I don’t need to look it up dude I own a set of accurate GF stormtrooper armour with both stunt & hero versions of the helmet to go with it & I know all the history, I studied it, cut, trimmed & built the suit & helmets myself straight off the plates. You can see it on http://www.starwarshelmets.com if you wish 🙂 + not nit picking I would just like such iconic characters to look authentic & correct
I didnt tell you to look it up, Asterisk on both sides of a word is typical internet symbolism to indicate that the action being performed is by the writer of the comment.
and it does look authentic and correct, you are just complaining that production errors are not being translatedto newer products.
Newer and better techniques exist that allow people to make the helmets look more like they were intended. You are talking about ungodlysmall details thatwere in no way intended.
But Star wars as had pretty graphic moments. Like in ANH when Luke finds his uncle and aunts smoldering corpse outside of his home, and Anakin burning alive in ROS
My first reaction on seeing these helmets was, “The two new ones on the ends are owned by members of the Rebel strike team.”
While they do have sort of a stormtrooper-ish look about them, I think they actually match up a lot more closely with the mercenary/bounty hunter look of the people in the Rebel cast photo. In fact, the glossy black one looks like it would fit well with the Imperial clothing that Riz Ahmed is wearing in that photo.
They COULD be new trooper helmets, but I’m thinking mercs.
i think the one on the left is defo a purge trooper, or any special stormtrooper unit. the one on the right could be aswell rebel but reminds me of the at-rt driver helmets in episode III
I wonder, is the black one some form of Shadowtrooper?
I’m a Cosplayer! I need to see the full outfits!
Kinky
I daren’t say anything in case I’m called Helmet-ist and my free speech is stifled. Oh well, you’ll all be safe in your cosey little blind world when they remove the anon posting feature soon. Good luck with your girl power movies you sensative little darlings.
…What?
I wish there was a high res copy of the helmet picture. The top of the black helmet almost gives you a panoramic view of the room it’s in. Looking at the lights/ skylights you can see on it. This picture could have been taken in the same room at pinewood. That the original leeked first order helmet pictures came from. If so that would pretty much confirm there from the movie. Instead of fan made.
What happened to the word about?
The one on the right reminds me of these clone wars helmets to be honest http://clonewars.wikia.com/wiki/Clone_Trooper_Pilot
I wonder if this means Donnie Yen is done shooting his part. Like the helmets are a parting gift from the crew. I’m gonna call it now, Donnie Yen is a force-sensitive who dies early on, leaving the Rebels without any higher power to save them as they await their new hope…
Not sure about him dying early on, but I think you’re definitely right about the Force sensitive part.
I hope he’s not another Padawan-escapee (especially since we already have the Last Padawan), and I’d definitely enjoy seeing some non-Jedi-oriented Force users (Yeah, I know, Knights of Ren, yada yada, but they still seem like a twist on the Jedi, same as the Sith were).
Plus, he looks like a Blind Warrior, a classic figure of Eastern lore. Considering that Lucas borrowed from the Seven Samurai back in ANH, the Blind Warrior archetype would mesh smoothly with TGFFA.
Great job aging those helmets on the left and right, Literally look like they are out of the 70’s.
I know right! They look vacuformed, like the OT Stormtrooper helmets were.
I’m very excited about these.
OH MY LAWD THOSE HELMETS ARE GORGEOUS
Doesn’t the helmet on the right appear in “Rebels”?
Very very cool.
And Donnie Yen is bad a$$.
the helmet on the right could be Donnie Yen’s character helmet. it has almost the same color as the gauntlets he is wearing in the cast picture and his uniform seems to have red markings like the helmet
Interesting choice of words: “I am the force”. I find the idea of a blind force sensitive fascinating.
The black helmet could be a TIE fighter pilot prototype – the breathing tubes are just missing.
If this movie doesn’t look and feel reminiscent of the opening scene of ANH then it just won’t be right. I mean simpler costumes, crude WW2 like props, seventies hair styles, in fact more of a seventies feel in general. I saw no hint of that in the cast photo. It looks to me like Edwards and his crew are getting too “creative” with a movie that is supposed to lead straight into ANH.
If you want to do a creative Star Wars movie, then set it after ROTJ or thousands of years before the saga.
The black helmet is cool though.
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