Squadron 42 Cast and Characters: The Faces Behind the Fleet

Mark Hamill is the pilot you have to impress. Gary Oldman is the admiral carrying the weight of a war. Gillian Anderson commands a ship of her own. Squadron 42 has assembled a remarkably recognisable cast, but the useful question for a new player is who all those faces belong to once the uniforms go on.

This is a guide to the principal performers and the characters introduced in public material, without turning their introductions into a plot summary. If the new trailer has brought you here, you can get your bearings without finding out where everyone’s story ends.

Mark Hamill as Steve “Old Man” Colton

Lieutenant Commander Steve Colton is an experienced naval pilot with a gravelly voice and very little interest in making a newcomer comfortable. The nickname fits. In The Oath, the prospect of flying alongside him is presented as an opportunity; his greeting makes it clear that earning his respect will be another matter.

There is a lovely detail in the original making-of film. The team had been discussing a Clint Eastwood flavour for Colton, while Hamill wanted to take him towards Lee Marvin. You can hear the result in that impatient delivery. This is a veteran who sounds as though he has heard every excuse a young pilot can offer and would prefer you to stop talking and keep up.

That gives Hamill a role with some bite. Colton can make a cockpit exchange entertaining before a missile is even fired, and a demanding wingman is a promising companion for a campaign built around learning your place in a naval crew. Whether that relationship pays off over the full game is something we still have the pleasure of discovering.

Gary Oldman’s Bishop and Gillian Anderson’s MacLaren

Gary Oldman plays Admiral Ernst Bishop. He brings the campaign’s war into view from the command level. His public appearances have the urgency of someone asking other people to face terrible danger, which gives the military spectacle a human point of reference. A fleet battle is easier to care about when the person ordering it understands what could be lost.

Gillian Anderson plays Captain Rachel MacLaren. Her captain has an immediate, practical authority: somebody who belongs aboard a working warship, rather than a famous face dropped into a uniform. The 2016 behind-the-scenes film follows Anderson through the performance-capture process, including physical action with stand-in props. It is a useful reminder of how much of these roles is acted with the whole body.

We have deliberately left family connections and later story developments out of this guide. Knowing who is on screen helps you follow a trailer; knowing every connection before playing is a different sort of preparation.

Squadron 42’s principal cast at a glance

These are publicly identified roles, not a claim to reproduce the finished game’s complete credits. The shorter names in the final column are enough to recognise a character without spoiling their part in the campaign.

The wider ensemble is worth noticing alongside the headline names. Eleanor Tomlinson’s Rebecca Trejo appears in the current official gallery, while Sophie Wu’s Webster and Rhona Mitra’s Kelly belong to the shipboard world shown in the early Stanton tour. A convincing military story needs that range: the people giving orders, the people carrying them out, and the people keeping the ship fit to leave port.

Acting aboard a ship that is not there yet

The making-of footage shows actors working in capture suits, with facial markers and physical stand-ins taking the place of finished spacecraft interiors. Hamill describes the process in terms of pretending and imagination. It looks gloriously unglamorous beside the finished imagery, which is part of its appeal: a convincing scene still begins with performers reacting to one another.

The official Mark Hamill film below is from November 2015. Watch it as a look at how Colton was performed, rather than as a demonstration of today’s graphics. The comparison with the current portrait above is especially interesting now that a new audience is meeting the character through Steam.

For us, the encouraging part is the opportunity to spend time with this ensemble between the big action sequences. A sharp reply over the radio, an awkward first meeting or an officer who remembers the new arrival can give a campaign its personality. The cast makes that prospect exciting; the finished game will have to give those performances room to work.

If you are new to the setting, start with our Squadron 42 and Star Citizen comparison. For the latest release announcement and trailer, see Squadron 42’s arrival on Steam.