With Gareth Edwards’ Star Wars: Rogue One shooting beginning to commence, the curtains are starting to be pulled back on what we can expect from the film. What we as of now is that the film will follow a group of Rebels who are stealing the Death Star plans, right before the beginning of Star Wars: A New Hope. Felecity Jones will lead the cast, and the film is supposed to be as much a heist film as it is a war film, and one that has no Jedi to be seen.
But that doesn’t mean that there won’t be any Force players in play, as Birth.Death.Movies has learned that none other than Darth Vader himself will appear in the film, but not as the film’s main antagonist. The report says that Vader will, “be working behind the scenes, pulling strings and will appear onscreen”, possibly via holo projection or view screen.
This makes a lot of sense, and is thrilling as well. If anyone has been watching Star Wars: Rebels, the series has taken this approach since the pilot episode. Vader is shown to be pulling the strings behind the David Oyelowo’s Imperial Security Officer, Agent Kallus, who is hot on the trails of our new band of rebels.
Lucasfilm is working harder on making Star Wars beloved again, after many felt betrayed and battered by the prequels before it. One way in doing that has been to try and make Darth Vader the larger than life villain again, in a way he hasn’t been in some time. It’s something that the company is doing not just through the cartoon and the film’s, but the recent Marvel comic series, Darth Vader, and the new novel, Sith Lords, as well. The way they’re putting it altogether, making Darth Vader a formidable, scary, iconic villain again is great, and incredibly refreshing.
It just makes sense to have Vader appear in the new film, because a film that’s set right before A New Hope, involving the Death Star and its plans. That’s a very important time to the series, and Vader is a bit key part of it as well. Seeing as he’s a huge part of the Empire and its resistance against the Rebel Alliance, it would almost be stranger to not include him in the film in some way.
Having Vader make a small, but important, part of the film is a way that makes the character’s presence known, almost dreaded throughout like Jaws, is incredibly exciting. Edwards has a great head on his shoulders, and he wouldn’t shoehorn the character in for no reason at all. This is the kind of world building that Marvel has been doing in the MCU since 2008 on a grand scale, and now we’re seeing Lucasfilm doing it as well.
It’ll be interesting to see what other characters from the galaxy far, far away we might in the film already has me very interested as well. I’m really hoping we’ll see Grand Moff Tarkin, played originally by Peter Cushing, in one form or another. Maybe even an appearance by Ian McDiarmid’s Emperor isn’t out of the question. There’s a lot of possibilities on what we can see in it, and I’m sure Edwards has a lot of it close to the vest for now. He’s a huge fan of the series, and he wants to make a movie that lives up to what came before, while setting up what we can expect from the Anthology films.
It’s great to see the Star Wars series growing in the way it is, with so much to say, and so many ways to go, while still feeling familiar. I’m very excited to see how it all comes together, and Rogue One is shaping up to be something very, very special. It’ll be interesting to see if we learn anything more this weekend at Comic-Con. There’s a very good chance that we will.
Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One, written by Gary Whitta and Chris Weitz, and directed by Gareth Edwards, will hit theaters December 16th, 2016.