How filming with Darth Vader made Star Wars cast and crew feel like four-year-olds
Return of the Sith lord meant fanboy moments even for the director, cast and crew of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story whenever Darth Vader strode on set
After working with Imperial Death Troopers for so long making Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, it didn’t faze director Gareth Edwards much when he ran into a couple of full-sized decorative models recently when entering a Los Angeles mall.
“I kind of looked at them like, ‘Oh, cool, Death Troopers’, and then suddenly stopped and thought, ‘Hang on a minute, this is my film. I’m never going to be in a position where it’s such already part of popular culture’,” says Edwards.
The dreaded Empire hasn’t been seen on the big screen since they were upended by Luke Skywalker and the Rebel Alliance in 1983’s Return of the Jedi. But with Rogue One – featuring a tale that takes place before the events of the first Star Wars film in 1977 – Edwards takes the reins of George Lucas’ bad guys, including the legendary Darth Vader.
The filmmaker blends the fresh and the familiar in Rogue One, which focuses on the construction of the weaponised battle station, the Death Star, and the Rebel mission to steal its plans. Blocky-winged TIE Fighters from Lucas’ original trilogy share space with more aerodynamic TIE Strikers.
And Vader looms again as an antagonistic presence alongside Director Orson Krennic, a new Imperial officer played by Ben Mendelsohn (Bloodline) and the boss of the darkly coloured Death Trooper squad.