RUMOR Official Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelson) discussion

Agent Kallus (who's job it is to hunt down rebels, enemies of the Empire) from Rebels reports to Yularen as well. So maybe Daggett here is Yularen's boss, that doesn't sound plausible.

 

I'm really leaning towards an ISB officer. Maybe someone who works with or over Yularen, as suggested by others.

 

I recently read Tarkin to guess who could be Menhelsohn's character. (Stephen Stanton has suggested suggested on Twitter that Mendelsohn’s character could have something to do with James Luceno‘s novel Tarkin.)

I know people are leaning towards ISB, but one odd situation in the book was the beginning when he meets his old "friend" Nils Tenant. I took a screen cap of the scene. This guy is introduced and has very little extra to do afterwards, expect that Tarkin recommends Nils later on to Emperor himself SHOULD he be removed from his position at the unfinished Death Star. I found the part with Nils as a bit "unnecessary", so there must be a reason why it is included. My guess is that he could be Ben Mendelsohn's character (unless you guys know more of him than I do)...

Just to show, see the screen caps.

 

I do not know where this rank guide comes from but it looks definitely conjectural and fails to address the obvious differences between ANH and ESB for the same ranks (i.e. General Taggi vs. General Veers, Admiral Motti vs. Admiral Ozzel / Piett).

Back in 1987 I really tried to figure out John Mollo's system he might have had in mind when he designed the rank badges for both ANH and ESB, this is what I came up with (and which was partially used in West End Games Imperial Sourcebook) - meanwhile updated with colors (used to be b & w):



The rank badge of the Mendelsohn character is obviously not a variation of the Tarkin rank badge (ie. 3 different colors) but the ESB (!) version of admiral.

That's quite a bit odd considering those ESB rank badges weren't around in ANH (unfortunately they partially are in Rebels), but since the light uniform coud represent a division of the Imperial Forces that was dissolved following ANH, perhaps the rank badge was merely adopted for the new ESB rank badges of the "Military Corps"?

 

I read the Tarkin book and I'm fairly convinced Mendehlson's character is the Deputy Chief Ison of the ISB http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Harus_Ison he is described as an pale, white haired individual.

 

Hi joshi, welcome to the Cantina!

I haven't gotten around to reading "Tarkin" yet, but that's a good catch.

I'm leaning towards ISB myself. It might turn out that he isn't, but that connection between his uniform and Yularen's seems pretty conclusive to me.

 

Hey, thanks! I've been lurking around for some time but decided to join since I've been obsessed in joining the conversation of the looks of the empire and I felt Theforce.net has turned into a merchandise website...
Yeah The ISB white tunic and black trousers seemed like a dead on to me.

 

I would agree that the uniform seems to be that of an ISB officer uniform. Mendlesohn doesn't appear to have white hair in this trailer from what I can tell so I'm not sure its Deputy Chief Ison. Or maybe it is him and its just a minor discrepancy in appearance. Either way I definitely think he is a high ranking ISB agent, if not the Director of the ISB given his admiral rank and considering his role in I would assume defending the Death Star plans. Also welcome to the Cantina!

 

I think that he will be a brand new character and a one-off that's killed by the end .

 

The question is, if so, will he be killed by our heroes or will he be executed by Darth Vader for his failure?

 

What if he kills himself with a lightsaber for failing sort of like doing that "Seppuku" stuff .

 

I got a PM asking "What do the numbers on the middle column of your rank chart indicate?"

It was an attempt to rationalize what the "pen-keys" or code cylinders where good for. I assumed these to be devices (not too dissimilar from Artoo's "arm") you could stick into an information retrieval consule to pull data or to access sensitive areas, depending on the "Access Authorization Grade" of your individual code cylinders or several combined (i.e. several officers could stick their cylinders together to get a higher AAG).

 

I agree with you, I've just posted almost the same on the Rogue One Thread forum...The rank of this character is Admiral (twelve squared insignia) with 2 code cylinders. BUT....I'm not sure if Mendelsohn's character is Thrawn or even if is a Grand Admiral. Remember that in the old canon, Legends books and Legends comics it was never agreed how the ranks for a Grand Admiral should look like. The insignia with twelve squares (no color specifications) and 4 code cylinders in the imperial manual (Legends) No code cylinders on some comics/books/novels and the squared chest panel with 6 blue squares, 3 yellow and 3 red, gold epaulets/NO gold epaulets, etc... Besides Ben Mendelsohn's character is wearing dark trousers (like the Imperial Security Bureau Officers) The cape, the gloves and the jacket design fits with the Grand Admiral description although...
May the Force be with us, always...

--- Double Post Merged, Apr 22, 2016, Original Post Date: Apr 22, 2016 ---

Hello, I think we really don't know. Because as I said before in the old canon and UE (Legends) it was never agreed how the ranks for a Grand Admiral should look like. If you take a look to the Imperial Handbook (Legends) you'll see this (NO color description for the squared insignia)




BUT in the Books/Novel/Comics/ sometimes there are no code cylinders, with/without gold epaulets (the 6 blue squares, 2 yellow and 3 red are more consistent although), etc. Regarding the Black trousers, looks like an Imperial Security Bureau Officer (last image below). But the cape, the gloves and the jacket design are pointing in Thrawn's direction...
May the Force be with us, always..

 

I don't know that they put as much time and thought about keeping those details consistent as us fans do. Heck the EU tended to contradict itself on things a lot bigger than just "what is the exact insignia/trouser color of the various Imperial ranks."

So it was just probably just careless but ultimately minor continuity mistakes on their part.

 

Blame it on West End Games. I provided them with a 4-page article based on my research attempt what John Mollo might have had in mind when he created the ANH rank badges, but the only reproduced pieces in the Imperial Sourcebook.
Essentially I arrived at the conclusion that he used a color wheel with 6 blue, 6 orange and 6 red bars. By lifting portions of that color wheel you got the rank badge bar placement.

In the case of Governor Tarkin (Administrative Corps?) you got 6 blue bars on top, 3 red below on the left and 3 orange below right. Assuming that Tarkin was outranked by General Governor and finally Grand Admiral (pretty much like in Nelson's Navy), Grand Admiral would have featured 6 red bars on top, 3 orange below left and 3 blue below right, according to that color wheel methodology.

 

Holly Molly! That is very interesting because the most common illustration for he Grand Admiral Ranks (old EU) is like this... (and I don't know how they come up with that)



Did you have a book or article published with your analysis? (I admit it I'm an obsessive jajaja) What do you think about the code cylinders thing?

 

Another interesting quote from Tarkin, Chapter 3:

"If Tarkin had his way, and it this point it was uncertain he ever would, he would adopt the hegemonic arrangement that was in place on Coruscant and elsewhere, and appoint an overseer to coordinate all construction and defense considerations. A single overseer to whom others would answer-or be damned if they didn't."

I think our mysterious Admiral in ISB garb will be the one that fills this role.

 

IMHO, research of the meaning of rank badges / plaques had never been a serious issue. Since it was already evident on the book cover of Heir to the Empire that Thrawn's "grand admiral" rank badge was inspired by Tarkin's colorful one, I never understood why they just didn't follow the basic suggestion, i.e. one row of 6 colors with the other two colors in quantities of three each below.

 

As you may already know, Mendelsohn is playing Director Krennic. Why "director" and not admiral as his rank plaque suggests? Is it an administrative title? Also, what do you think about the theories that Krennic could be a young Snoke?