Orson Krennic

"You, on the other hand, will die with the Rebellion!"

- Orson Krennic's last words. "(Jyn's mother: You're not taking him.) No, of course not. I'm taking you all with me."

- Orson Krennic's plan to kidnap Galen Erso's family.

Director Orson Krennic is the main antagonist of the 2016 movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. He is the ruthless Director of Advanced Weapons Research for the Imperial Military who desires to complete the Death Star for the Empire and his superiors, Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine.

He was portrayed by Ben Mendelsohn, who also portrayed John Daggett in The Dark Knight Rises.

History
As work on the Death Star is stalling, Krennic is sent to retrieve former Imperial engineer Galen Erso. Krenic manages to locate Galen on a remote planet and headed there, accompanied by a squad of Death Troopers. When Galen confronted the approaching Krennic, Krennic revealed his intentions to Galen. He also sent his men inside Galen's home, intending to use his wife Lyra and his daughter Jyn as hostages to ensure Galen's cooperation. When Lyra turns up, Krennic welcomes her as well. However, Lyra draws a gun and shoots at Krennic, hitting him in the shoulder. Krennic in turns orders his guards to open fire and the Death Troopers kill Lyra. Unable to find the young Jyn, Krennic and his men leave the planet with Galen.

Many years later, The Empire kept Jyn as a hostage, until she escaped with the help of The Alliance. Orson was later present when Grand Moff Tarkin tested his Death Star. Under Tarkin's command, Orson was to choose the target location. The weapon was tested on Jedha with success, and was meant to destroy it's Rebel Alliance, lead by Saw Gerrera. He later got into a brief argument with Tarkin, as he promised not to fail, as Tarkin was left disagreeing.

Orson later flew to Galen's research center, and informed that one of the scientists is a traitor. Upon nobody coming forward, Krennic ordered their immediate execution, but Galen admitted he was the traitor, and not any of his scientists. Orson has killed all of Galen's scientists nonetheless, and hit Galen on the face, knocking him to the ground. Jyn however came and saved Galen, but he is killed during the battle. He then met with Darth Vader, who discussed with him the matters of The Death Star, and the priority to destroy the rebels.

Battle of Scarif
Ordered by Vader to make sure that the Death Star would be fully functional and without safety concerns, Krennic directly headed to the research center on Scarif where he tried to find Galen's plans and send them to Tarkin. However, his arrival coincided with the rebel attack on the base, with the Rogue One unit attempting to steal the plans from the base. After spotting several detonation near the base, Krennic sent his troups outside where they engaged the rebel troups in battle. Although his men seemed to lose at first, Krennic then sent out his personal guard squad, the Death Troopers, outside who then turned the battle in favor of the Empire.

Meanwhile, Krennic had been alerted that someone was accessing data from within the base and immediately headed there with two of his guards. He found Jyn and Cassian Andor who attempted to escape with the plans. Krennic and his men opened fire and managed to hit Andor while he was climbing up the lift to the base's antenna. Andor fell down and remained on the floor motionless.

Pursuing Jyn who had reached the antenna, Krennic headed up with the lift, eventually confronting Jyn who was about to send the Death Star plans to the rebel fleet. Aiming his gun at Jyn, Krennic demanded to know who she was and Jyn replied that he already knew her as the daughter of Galen Erso. Jyn also told him that he had lost, claiming that she had already sent the Death Star plans to the fleet. However, Krennic replied that the shield was still operational, preventing any message or broadcast from leaving the planet, and that the few rebels still on the planet would be dead soon as well. Krennic then raised his gun to shoot Jyn but was shot instead by Andor who had managed to reach the antenna platform on his own. Wounded, Krennic fell to the ground. Jyn was about to murder him but Andor convinced her to spare him. When the two fled the base while leaving Krennic on the roof, Krennic looked up to see the Death Star approaching Scarif. Krennic realized that Tarkin intended to destroy the base and everyone within but was unable to flee. The Death Star shot its main laser at Scarrif, annihilating everyone in and around the base, including Krennic, Jyn and Andor. Krennic's creation was indeed a truly powerful weapon, but at the end of the Battle of Scarif, Krennic's desire for power eventually lead to his own destruction. He was killed by his own creation, although it should be noted that Tarkin did carry out the order to do so.

Trivia

 * Krennic is similar to Le Chiffre from Casino Royale;
 * Both are highly intelligent, and even though they answer to evil organizations (Krennic: The Empire, Le Chiffre: Quantum (and indirectly, SPECTRE)), they serve as the main antagonist and drive the plot of the story.
 * They ultimately get killed off by their superiors for reasons of security (White to protect Quantum's reputation and Tarkin to stop the Death Star plans theft); in other words, they do themselves in with their own ambition and greed.
 * He is the most recent Complete Monster in the Star Wars franchise, literally right after General Hux from the sequel trilogy. Naare from The Freemaker Adventures does not count because she is not a cannon villain.
 * Krennic is also the first Star Wars Complete Monster to be the main antagonist of his first film appearance, even if it is also his only appearance.
 * Krennic's insignia at the start of Rogue One is different to the rest of the movie. The idea was to show he was a different rank when kidnapping Galen and not necessarily Director of Advanced Weapons Research yet.