Riz Ahmed’s ‘Rogue One’ Character Was Originally Nutjob Engineer

“He was actually an Imperial engineer who had been kidnapped and kind of had Stockholm Syndrome,” says “Star Wars Story” star

Rogue One, Riz Ahmed
Photographed by Corina Marie for TheWrap

Riz Ahmed was originally going to play a very different character in “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” before re-shoots had to happen.

Ahmed, who played defecting Imperial pilot Bodhi Rook in the final version of the film, revealed that he was originally cast as a completely different character, according to new details the actor shared with Entertainment Weekly.

“His name was Bokan, and he was actually Saw Gerrera’s engineer, living on a planet with a strong electromagnetic field, which meant that electronics were never working,” said Ahmed. “He was actually an Imperial engineer who had been kidnapped and kind of had Stockholm Syndrome. He had been living there for so long, he kind of lost it, like Dennis Hopper in Apocalypse Now.”

Ahmed explained the reason why the character’s name was also changed, adding, “Bodhi means awakening. He’s a character who goes through kind of an enlightenment.”

Ahmed also revealed a slightly alternate ending for his character that was planned before the film’s re-shoots.

“Actually he died slightly differently before, in that whole sequence of him running around with the plug,” he said. “There was actually this one shot that was about a minute long, and it was basically Bodhi ducking and diving from Stormtroopers to try and like get the plug to where he wanted it to go while Donnie and Jyn, when Chirrut and Baze were kind of flanking him.”

“Rogue One: A Star Wars” Story will be available on Digital HD as of March 24 followed by the DVD & Blu-Ray release on April 4, 2017.

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