In what is fast becoming a new Star Wars tradition, speculation has emerged that two of the male characters in Rogue One are in a relationship – although one that’s implied rather than shown. Some on the web have wondered whether the closeness between Chirrut Îmwe (Donnie Yen) and Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen) goes beyond friendship, and whether they’re actually gay.
It mirrors the speculation last year with The Force Awakens that Finn (John Boyega) Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) had a romantic interest in one another. With both films though, there’s nothing in the movie that definitively points to it being gay, rather than just a close male friendship.
However, director Gareth Edwards was asked about it, Yahoo! Movies, “I don’t mind people reading into [Chirrut and Baze’s relationship]. I think that’s all good. Who knows? You’d have to speak to them”.
One of the movie’s villains, Ben Mendelsohn, adds, “I think Chirrut and Baze are an enormously entertaining part of this film. I found them thoroughly enjoyable. Any [gay] subtext, I think, is certainly … people like to enjoy these films on many different levels, and if people are enjoying it on that level – that’s it.”
Force Awakens director JJ Abrams has previously said that he hopes the franchise can find room for explicitly LGBT characters, although the likelihood of that being Finn and Poe – despite Oscar Isaac mischievously hinting – still seems prety unlikely.
While there have been rumours of trouble behind the scenes of Rogue One, with Disney said to be concerned about the tone, and the need for extensive reshoots, in the past few weeks the vibes seem to have been improving for the first of the planned movies that take place outside the main Star Wars story arc. The final trailer has now arrived, which certainly makes it look like this could be a good one.
Now this is an interesting one. There was a lot riding on the trailer for Rogue One after the success of The Force Awakens, as not only did it have to show it wasn’t a follow-up to last year’s movie but it also needed to show those uncertain about it that it wasn’t just a shameless cash-in on the Star Wars name.
The cast for Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One continues to grow and it’s looking good, this time adding Oscar winner Forest Whitaker, according to 
Gareth Edwards is certainly building a great cast for Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One, with Felicity Jones, Riz Ahmed and Ben Mendelsohn already onboard. Now it looks like they’ve got some company, as 
Star Wars Rogue One is set to shoot this year but it still needs to complete its cast. Felicity Jones is already aboard and Ben Mendelsohn was recently rumoured to be joining her.
There was a lot of interest a few weeks ago when it was revealed that the Star Wars universe was getting its very first officially LGBT characters – or at least the first one it was going to openly admit wasn’t straight (apparently, despite there being thousands of planets with aliens on them, they’re all straight, except one person).
Disney/Lucasfilm may have only announced the title of their Star Wars spin-off, Rogue One, a couple of weeks ago, but with a December 2016 release date already set there’s no time to waste as with tonnes of special effects needed, they know they need to start filming fairly soon.