News
Darth Vader Returns! ‘Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One’ Gains A Secondary Villain
The now-filming(!) Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One has managed to keep the majority of its details quiet over the past few months, but it looks like that is about to change. Today was already Star Wars crazy enough, given the announcement that the second Star Wars Anthology entry will be a young Han Solo film and directed by Phil Lord & Chris Miller (21 Jump Street, The LEGO Movie) for a May 2018 release. We thought that would be the peak of Star Wars news today. We were wrong.
Birth.Movies.Death is claiming that Ben Mendelsohn’s new Moff character isn’t the only baddie menacing Felicity Jones & Co. in Gareth Edwards’ Rogue One next year: Darth Vader will be too! While they go on to state that they aren’t sure how much Vader will be in the film and in what capacity, our own sources have painted a larger picture.
We all know that the central idea is that the film is set between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, with a group of rebels stealing the plans for the Death Star and making off across the galaxy to deliver them to their superiors. The “Rogue One” of the title is the name of their mission. In pursuit is Mendelsohn’s Moff and his imperial cronies. That’s the vague set-up we’ve been given to date.
According to our own sources, Vader enters the fray when he learns that the plans have been stolen and is none too pleased about this. While we should not expect everyone’s favorite, Force-choke happy Darth to be a main role in the film, it does sound like this will be more than a cameo. Given that he recently participated on the animated series set during this same gap, “Star Wars: Rebels”, I think it is safe to assume that James Earl Jones will be back to voice Lord Vader. Rumors still persist that WWE superstar Seamus has been cast as Vader in the suit, but no confirmation has been made at this time.
With filming underway, San Diego Comic-Con later in the week, and D23 creeping up next month, we should expect to hear a lot more about Rogue One in the coming weeks, both in terms of cast and story.
Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One is set to hits theaters on December 16, 2016. Directed by Gareth Edwards (Monsters, Godzilla) and written by John Knoll, Gary Whitta, and Chris Weitz, the film stars Felicity Jones, Ben Mendelsohn, Sam Claflin, Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed, and Forest Whitaker.
The best part about engaging with collaborative genre fiction on the internet is that anyone can get in on the action, with worldwide accessibility often resulting in absurd story beats that wouldn’t be possible if any single person was responsible for the entire narrative. And while Kane Parsons’ Backrooms film is definitely the young filmmaker’s own unique take on the infamous creepypasta, it’s fun to see other creators join the Backrooms sandbox now that the big screen adaptation is getting ready for a record-shattering opening weekend.
As if cleverly timed releases like Puppet Combo’s The Backrooms game weren’t enough (not to mention that Scary Movie poster poking fun at Parsons’ flick), McDonald’s official social media accounts have now released an analog horror video of their own celebrating the liminal terrors of the McRooms – complete with a familiar purple surprise at the end of the footage.
While it’s funny enough to see the world’s most recognizable Fast Food giant engage with internet-borne Found Footage thrills seemingly out of the blue, the video is actually referencing a long-running gag among the Backrooms fandom where creators jokingly talk about there being a fully functional McDonald’s restaurant hidden somewhere in level 0 of the infamous liminal labyrinth.
Now, would it be too much to hope for a moist-carpet-flavored McShake to tie in with the film?
Backrooms is now playing only in theaters from A24.
You must be logged in to post a comment.