'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story'
Star Wars: Rogue One. Left to Right: Actors Riz Ahmed, Diego Luna, Felicity Jones, Jiang Wen and Donnie Yen. Lucasfilm 2016/ Jonathan Olley

One of the characters in “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” is based on the late British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The revelation was made after a new featurette of the film was released online.

[Spoiler alert]

The upcoming movie will be introducing a subspecies of Mon Calamari. In the original trilogy Admiral Ackbar (Tim Rose) belonged to this fish-like alien race. The new character from this species is Admiral Raddus (Paul Kasey).

‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’: Admiral Raddus

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Creature Effects Supervisor Neal Scanlan said that Admiral Raddus is based on the World War II leader Churchill. He explained that the team always tried to look for people in the real world for inspiration while designing an alien character.

Churchill was in charge at the height of the World War II. He was a strong leader who refused to bow down to the Nazi aggression. Scanlan and his team have tried to capture the same strength for Admiral Raddus. This was not limited to the personality of the character, but also the physical features and how the character expressed his emotions in a scene through the actor performing the role.

‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’: Death Star and the Empire

Admiral Raddus is an important leader in the Rebel Alliance. Once they find out the power of the Death Star super weapon the Empire has built; it will take a lot of courage and mental strength to be able to oppose the Emperor and also inspire the other alliance members to continue to fight.

Scanlan explained that it helps to have a real world reference while designing an alien creature. This process, he said, helps to ground the creatures and ideas. These references also help the audience feel that the characters belong in the real world and the viewers will be able to relate to them.

“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” has been directed by Gareth Edwards. The movie is set to be released on Dec. 15 in Australia.

Credit: YouTube/ Star Wars

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