WookieeLeaks: We Know Who Ken Leung and Miltos Yerolemou Are Playing in ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’

ScreenCrush’s WookieeLeaks is a weekly roundup of everything Star Wars! From The Force Awakens, to the upcoming spinoffs and the TV shows, if it pertains to that long ago, far away galaxy, we’re covering it here, bringing you our expert analysis. This week, an image of Ken Leung’s new character leaks online, a new actor joins Rogue One, and Gary Whitta talks about writing a Star Wars movie.

New Character and Actor Details

A few weeks ago, we learned that Lost veteran Ken Leung was in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, playing a role that was either top secret or so minor that it didn’t even require a press release. This week, we’ve learned a few details.

Star Wars 7 News has gotten their hands on an image of Leung in costume and you can check it out right over at their site. As you can see, he’s wearing the uniform of a Resistance (formerly known as the Rebel Alliance) officer. With a uniform like that, we can imagine him standing around various computer consoles, looks distressed as our heroes try to save the day. Anyway, Making Star Wars is pretty sure his character’s name is Brance, so expect to see his action figure pop up in your local toy store no matter what, even if he’s a minor character with nothing to do.

Speaking of minor characters, we finally know a thing or two about who Miltos Yerolemous is playing in The Force Awakens. Since he’s best known for playing master swordsman Syrio Forel in the first season of Game of Thrones, everyone expected something flashy. A soldier. A Jedi. A henchmen. Well, it seems that he’s currently being billed as “HM Patron.”

To be fair, he will eventually have a name. Even if his character never has a name onscreen, he will get a name because there will be an action figure for the character. Guaranteed. But what does “HM Patron” mean? We actually know this one! Minor spoilers follow in the next paragraph.

We know that The Force Awakens takes us to the castle home of alien-pirate-wizard Maz Kanata (Lupita Nyong’o), whose base is filled with all kinds of scum and villainy. Apparently, the production codename for this castle is “House of Mirrors,” aka, “HM.” So Yerolemous will be playing someone hanging around Maz Kanata’s establishment. Here are more details:

Maz Kanata’s pub inside the castle, as shown in the Vanity Fair piece recently, was code named the “Hall of Mirrors.”  I think this does narrow down which part of the film Miltos participated in and it begs the question does he just sip a drink or do we get to see some of his sword skills on screen? I imagine Miltos will remain named “HM Patron” until an action figure or visual guide of some sort names him.

So there you go.

Elsewhere on the internet, Simon Pegg sat down for another interview that wasn’t about Star Wars that ended up being about Star Wars. We still don’t know the extent of Pegg’s involvement in The Force Awakens, but we guess he won’t have as much screen time as Leung or Yerolemous. His quote here is typical Pegg – excitable, humble, nerdy:

I mean, seeing it [Star Wars] for the first time [as a kid] and coming out and being so utterly changed by it, it was an incredible thing to be part of it. I was down there days when I wasn’t working just to hang out and see everybody. Meeting the likes of Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill, and Harrison Ford — they were my heroes growing up. They still are. It was extraordinary, and I’m sure they find it hilariously funny. I was holding Carrie Fisher, like, ‘I love you!’ And I could see it, looking into her eyes, I could see the same eyes that I’d seen as a kid. It was literally a dream come true. They’re all awesome. They’re great people.

And finally, Sherlock actor Jonathan Aris has joined the cast of Star Wars: Rogue One, playing the role of Senator Jebel. And then the credit suddenly vanished from his public Spotlight page. But it’s been screencapped. Because the internet is forever.

Star Wars Crew Chatter

Star Wars: Rogue One screenwriter Gary Whitta was in the middle of an interview about his new novel Abomination when he was ambushed by a wild Star Wars question. Prepared for such an encounter, he gave the kind of nostalgia-soaked non-answer that everyone involved in a massive franchise is so good at supplying:

[In 2014,] Disney had [announced it had] bought Lucasfilm… Star Wars was basically coming back in a big way. I was so excited, I instantly emailed my agent, saying, “I know there’s probably a hundred writers who are better placed, but the 10-year-old kid in me would kill me if I didn’t at least try to throw my hat in the ring for one of these films.” I never really expected anything to come out of it. But I was on the list of writers they wanted to meet. Lucasfilm approached me at what kind of seemed like a general meeting. Then they offered me this job. I had no idea it was going to be a movie, I just thought it would be a video game or a novelization, or something… I’m still pinching myself that I got to work on [an official movie]. It’s just been an amazing experience.

The second part of his answer is a very polite way of saying “I can’t talk about this right now. Please stop asking me about Star Wars. They will kill me. Please.”

I spent the best part of a year on the script working very closely with Gareth Edwards, who’s directing it. He’s one of the smartest filmmakers I ever met and also one of the few people I’ve ever met who’s an even bigger Star Wars fan than I am… He’s so committed to making a Star Wars film that everyone can look at and feel that honors the legacy of [Star Wars] films. I wish I could talk more about it in more detail, but there will be plenty of time for that next year.

Whitta’s enthusiasm in the face of every single person in his life grilling him about Star Wars is matched only by J.J. Abrams, who explains how he handles the pressure of it all in this video interview.