As far as best friends in Star Wars go we’ve got Artoo and Threepio, Han and Chewie, and maybe Obi-Wan and Anakin (in their early days, that is). But now in Rogue One we can add Baze Malbus and Chirrut Îmwe to that list too.
Jyn Erso has had most of the screen-time in all the Rogue One footage released so far, but the new Chinese trailer for the first standalone Star Wars movies rightly highlights the Chinese actors Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen. We do get some new shots of reprogrammed security droid K-2SO and Jyn’s whole squad boarding a cargo ship and speeding through hyperspace. But this trailer extends an ambush scene between Chirrut, Baze, and a group of stormtroopers we’ve also seen bits of in previous trailers.
“I’ve been recruiting for the Rebellion,” Diego Luna’s Rebel officer Cassian Andor says in voiceover narration. “Spies, saboteurs, assassins,” before cutting to a scene of a platoon of stormtroopers surrounding Chirrut on Jedha. “He’s blind,” says one of them before they’re all taken out by the Force-loving monk with a little help from his big gun-packing friend.
“You almost shot me!” Chirrut says. “You’re welcome,” Baze responds.
You really get a sense of their odd couple dynamic, with Chirrut as the soft-spoken stern one and Baze as the dude who literally shoots first and asks questions later.
These two look great on a character level, and considering Both Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen’s huge poularity in China they might open the Star Wars saga to an even bigger fanbase considering that lucrative market’s famously lukewarm response to The Force Awakens.
Rogue One hits theaters on December 16.
