Rogue One: A Star Wars Story cast list -- Who's playing who

We tell you who’d playing all those new characters in the first Star Wars spinoff film.

When you stop and think about it, the core conceit of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is a solid one. We all know the Rebels figured out the weak point of the Death Star so that Luke Skywalker could blow it up (spoilers!). But how did they know about it in the first place?

We’re about to find out. Rogue One tells the story of how the Rebels got their hands on the Death Star plans so that Princess Leia could insert them into a certain R2 unit. While Darth Vader is definitely in it and a few other familiar faces might show up, the ensemble is largely made up of characters we’ll meet for the first time.

That means new actors for the franchise as well, and Rogue One has plenty of them. Here’s who you’ll be watching when the movie blasts into movie theaters on December 16:

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story cast list

New characters

Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso
Diego Luna as Cassian Andor
Alan Tudyk as K-2SO
Donnie Yen as Chirrut Imwe
Wen Jiang as Baze Malbus
Ben Mendelsohn as Orson Krennic
Forest Whitaker as Saw Gerrera
Riz Ahmed as Bodhi Rook
Mads Mikkelsen as Galen Erso
Alistair Petrie as General Draven
Ben Daniels as General Merrick
Paul Kasey as Admiral Raddus
Ian McElhinney as General Dodonna
Fares Fares as Senator Vaspar
Jonathan Aris as Senator Jebel
Valene Kane as Lyra Erso

Returning characters

Jimmy Smits as Bail Organa
Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma
James Earl Jones as Darth Vader (voice only)

Note that because of the time that has passed since Return of the Jedi was filmed, Mon Mothma has been recast, as she was originally played by Caroline Blakiston. O’Reilly did play the role in Revenge of the Sith, the Star Wars movie that chronologically precedes Rogue One.