Warning: This article contains major spoilers forStar Wars: Rogue One. Ever since the first trailer forRogue One: A Star Wars Storydebuted back in April, fans have been dying to see what the very first standalone movie in a galaxy far, far way would look like. Well, the wait is over, since the movie hits theaters this weekend, and the reaction has been incredibly positive thus far. It featured a ton of familiar characters in addition to plenty of new ones, but one character, in particular, may have come as a bit of a surprise toStar Warsfans. Amazingly enough,Grand Moff Tarkinappears in the movie.
Grand Moff Tarkin was originally played inStar Wars: A New Hopeby the latePeter Cushingand he is an incredibly important figure in that movie, and theStar Warsuniverse in general for that matter. Additionally, in the newStar Warscanon, he has become an even more important figure as the mythology of the Empire has been fleshed out in novels likeCatalyst. That being the case, directorGareth Edwardsfound a way to get him in the movie, even though the actor who originally brought the character to life is no longer with us. So how did they do it?
The idea to actually put Tarkin in the movie came fromRogue One: A Star Wars Story’s visual effects supervisorJohn Knoll. He took on the task of bringing this version of Tarkin to life in the movie and did so through some technological innovation. The character actually seen on screen inStar Wars: Rogue Oneis purely digital. Industrial Light and Magic went through a painstaking and very long process of creating him using entirely CGI. While watching the movie, it is pretty clear that it is a digitally created figure, but they did capturePeter Chushing’s likeness very accurately and managed to have theclassic characternot only appear in the movie, but be a major player in several key scenes inRogue One. Here is what directorGareth Edwardshad to say about it.
“It was a lot of blood, sweat and tears from Industrial Light and Magic… we went all or nothing in.”
During the actual production,Harry PotteractorGuy Henrystood in forStar Wars villainGrand Moff Tarkin to capture the movements and to have something for the other actors to play off of. The voice for Tarkin was provided separately byStephen Stanton, so it really was a massive effort to bring the character back for this movie. He was very important to the plot as anyone who has seenRogue One: A Star Wars Storyknows, but some have questioned if this was the right thing to do.Peter Cushingdied in 1994 and using his likeness on screen again without his permission has some potential for coming off as inappropriate. Aside from that, while the innovation was certainly impressive in some ways it was still very obvious that Tarkin was CGI and that can be distracting while watching the movie.
In any case, it would have been nearly impossible to do this movie without Tarkin’s presence in some way. InStar Wars: A New Hopehe was the highest ranking Imperial officer on the Death Star and even above Darth Vader, was in charge of the planet destroying weapon. He is the one that gives the order to destroy Alderaan and doesn’t seem the least bit distraught over killing more than a billion people. In the novelCatalyst, which precedes the events ofRogue One, it is further explained that Grand Moff Tarkin and Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) are bitter rivals who are both trying to gain favor with the Emperor. Since we don’t see Krennic inA New Hope, it is pretty clear that Tarkin got the better end of that deal, making it even more crucial he appear inStar Wars: Rogue One, since the events in the movie lead directly into the events ofStar Wars: A New Hope
The way in which Grand Moff Tarkin was brought to life may divide someStar Warsfans, but he needed to be in the movie in some way. Not only that, butStar Warsmovies have always been known for advancing visual effects and technology and this was just another way of doing that. Despite anyone’s personal feelings on the matter, it is hard not to be impressed with the amount of work that went into bringing Grand Moff Tarkin back to theStar Warsuniverse one last time.
