After months and months of speculation, we finally found out who was in the bacta tank last month with the release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, with the sequence serving as the film’s introduction to Darth Vader as we see the former Anakin Skywalker sans suit as he attempts to repair his injuries from his duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi from Revenge of the Sith.
Speaking to Empire (via Comic Book), director Gareth Edwards has been talking about his inspiration for the sequence, stating that:
“I’m jealous of moments like in The Empire Strikes Back where you see the back of [Vader’s] head and you just go, ‘oh my God, that is so cool,’ and wanted to try and find something like that in our film. He’s really a burns victim, and it’s not going to be fun for him when he’s not in the suit – he’s going to be uncomfortable. I love the idea of showing that he’s vulnerable as well. Vader’s very, very bad, and so you try and just glimpse something of him that gives him some humanity, or it makes you empathise with him. Just seeing those scars and realising that he’s, you know, an amputee, and just reminding you of that before he does all his stuff, it makes you torn, I think. He’s just such a rich character, in so many ways.”
SEE ALSO: Lucasfilm’s Doug Chiang on Darth Vader’s castle from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
From Lucasfilm comes the first of the Star Wars standalone films, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, an all-new epic adventure. In a time of conflict, a group of unlikely heroes band together on a mission to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Empire’s ultimate weapon of destruction. This key event in the Star Wars timeline brings together ordinary people who choose to do extraordinary things, and in doing so, become part of something greater than themselves.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story sees Gareth Edwards (Monsters) directing a cast that includes Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything), Diego Luna (Milk), Ben Mendelsohn (The Dark Knight Rises), Donnie Yen (Ip Man), Jiang Wen (Let the Bullets Fly), Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland), Alan Tudyk (Con Man), Riz Ahmed (Nightcrawler), Genevieve O’Reilly (Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith), Jimmy Smits (Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones), James Earl Jones (Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope), Valene Kane (The Fall), Alistair Petrie (The Night Manager), Warwick Davis (Star Wars: Episode IV – Return of the Jedi), Ian McElhinney (Game of Thrones) and Jonathan Aris (Sherlock).
Originally published January 5, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
