Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland) has joined the cast of the upcoming Star Wars spin-off film Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One! Variety has the news, reporting that Whitaker will join a cast that currentl includes Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything), Riz Ahmed (Nightcrawler), Sam Claflin (Snow White and the Huntsman), and Ben Mendelsohn (The Dark Knight Rises). What’s more, the outlet also reports that Whitaker is in negotiations to join the cast of The Crow remake.

The first in the “Star Wars Anthology” series of spin-off films, Rogue One will follow a rogue band of resistance fighters united to steal the Death Star plans and bring new hope to the galaxy.

“It’s the reality of war. Good guys are bad. Bad guys are good,” director Gareth Edwards said at Star Wars Celebration.

John Knoll, the Academy Award-winning visual effects supervisor who currently serves as chief creative officer at Industrial Light & Magic, is executive producing the film along with Simon Emanuel (The Dark Knight Rises, Fast & Furious 6) and Jason McGatlin (Tintin, War of the Worlds). Kathleen Kennedy and Tony To (“Band of Brothers,” “The Pacific”) are on board to produce with John Swartz (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) attached to co-produce. It was also recently confirmed that Alexandre Desplat (The Grand Budapest Hotel, The King’s Speech) will be providing the score.

Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One is set for release on December 16, 2016.

The Crow, meanwhile, is set to star Jack Huston and Jessica Brown Findlay and is planned as a gritty reboot of the iconic James O’Barr comic book character. Huston (“Boardwalk Empire”) will star as Eric Draven, a man who returns from the grave as a supernatural antihero on a mission to avenge his wife’s murder, so that his soul can finally rest.

Featuring a screenplay by Cliff Dorfman, the new take on The Crow is produced by Ryan Kavanaugh, Kevin Misher, Jeff Most and the original film’s Edward R. Pressman.

(Photo credit: FayesVision / WENN.com)