Former Doctor Who star Matt Smith was announced to be joining the cast of Star Wars: Episode IX back in August, to the delight of sci-fi fans everywhere. Naturally, Whovians and Star Wars nerds alike began to theorize over who the Eleventh Doctor actor could be playing in J.J. Abrams’ grand finale to the trilogy which he started in 2015.
Lucasfilm has yet to divulge any firm details, but one person over on Reddit claims to know how Smith fits into the movie. User Hankosheppard writes that he’s heard through the grapevine that Smith’s character is being given the provisional name of “Roman” during filming so as to keep his actual name a secret. The role he’ll fill, though, is General Hux’s second-in-command, meaning Smith is expected to shoot the bulk of his scenes with Domhnall Gleeson.
Any time a known British actor’s cast in Star Wars, they typically end up becoming members of the Empire, or its off-spring the First Order, so this is certainly believable. It would also fit in with Smith’s interest in darker roles of late. He’s already playing notorious serial killer Charles Manson in Charlie Says and you might also remember him as the embodiment of Skynet in Terminator: Genisys (one of the few good things about that flick).
It’s worth remembering though that a different rumor from a few months ago claimed that Smith was playing a much more important role on the Dark Side. Back then, we’d heard that he’d been brought on board to play a young Sheev Palpatine, the evil Emperor usually portrayed by Ian McDiarmid.
A number of rumors say that the Emperor – and Vader, too – will return in the film in some way, but again, that all remains unconfirmed for now. What we do know, however, is that Star Wars: Episode IX will arrive in theaters on December 20th, 2019.