By: Dominic Jones
We're now less than eleven months away from the December 16th release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and, while we don't know much officially, the rumor mill is beginning to heat up. At least one iconic bad guy is rumored to make a return in the film, and now our friends at MakingStarWars.net are reporting that another classic villain may be making a return in Rogue One. As usual, there is a chance this may not be accurate but if you are trying to avoid all Rogue One spoilers stop reading now. This is your SPOILER ALERT!
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According to MSW, concepts were created to bring back Grand Moff Tarkin in the film. This would make sense given that Tarkin was in charge of overseeing the construction of the Death Star. Rogue One will tell the story of how the Rebels steal the plans to the first Death Star, so we can understand why Tarkin would have a vested interest in getting those plans back.
Obviously, the biggest issue is that Peter Cushing, who played Tarkin in A New Hope, has been dead for over twenty years. There have previously been rumors about Cushing being recreated digitally for the film (however the source on that story was the Daily Mail, which makes it are dubious at best). There are other options though, for example in Revenge of the Sith, Tarkin was portrayed by Wayne Pygram, wearing prosthetics. If Tarkin is to appear in the film, the method they bring him back will depend on the size of the role. If the role is a brief cameo, or only a scene or two, they could pair a physical performance by someone like Pygram in the prosthetics with a vocal performance by Stephen Stanton (who plays Tarkin on the animated series Star Wars Rebels). However, if the role is much larger, they may have to explore other options.
As always this is just a rumor until confirmed or denied by Lucasfilm or Disney.
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