Vader, if there is a more iconic original villain in movie history you’d hard pressed to prove it. The all black costume combined with the height and the voice of James Earl Jones makes him menacing in a way that is next to indescribable. The calm controlled evil Vader showed throughout the original trilogy made him a next to irredeemable character that eventually was redeemed. Now we know we get more live action Vader in Rogue One and I couldn’t be giddier or more apprehensive. Today we’ll explore what we think we’re getting and why, if we’re right, it will only help the legend of Vader.

Its been suspected that Vader would be in Rogue One for quite a awhile and most fans probably thought it was to be expected. The only real question has been how much Vader will we get? Thanks to the EW article last week we now know; Just a little bit. We now know that Vader will be more of an off-screen threat that shows up at a critical time in the movie based on Kathleen Kennedy’s remarks. We also know that Vader is not well known. I suspect that Vader is only known to those at are in the upper echelons of power in both the Rebellion and the Empire. This is why Leia knows who he is but Luke and Han have no reaction to the name in ANH. So what does that mean for Vader, the villains and Rebels in Rogue One?

My guess is Vader will have 3-5 scenes max. From the recent EW article we know several actors played Vader in suit and that tells me that Vader will have at least one action scene, other wise why have different actors? I suspect that Vader first 2-3 scenes will be like cameo appearances where he is seen for 30 seconds calmly giving his expectations to Imperials that understand he can do as he wishes if they fail. His final scenes will be his action scenes. The question to me is will that be against the Rebels or the Imperials? We know that there is friction between all of the Imperials as they try to one up each other into the good graces of the Emperor and that Krennic, our main villain, is attempting to be the Emperor’s favorite. In fact, there are some parallels between Hux/Kylo Ren from TFA and Krennic/Vader for Rogue One. Vader is a problem for him and others as he is NOT a part of their command structure, can ignore anything they say, and has a bind with Emperor they do not understand. My belief is he will be more of a threat to Krennic throughout the movie than the Rebels. If I am correct and he has an actions scenes it will be taking out the Death Troopers that I suspect are Krennic’s force. They fail to stop the rebels and he destroys them before going after the Rebels himself.

Does that mean the Rebels won’t deal with him? No, I suspect his final scene will be aboard the Rebel ship that beams the stolen plans to Princess Leia. The last stand of the Rogue One fighters will be what allows the plans to get to her and they will be the ones that Vader refers to

There’ll be no one to stop us this time.- Vader in ANH

By my guess none of these character will survive or at least only a couple will at most. Vader will be a force felt throughout the movie and in its climax provide the finality that leads us directly to A New hope.

There is a decent chance, given reports that Rouge One will end 10 minutes before the beginning of ANH, that we will see Vader and his Imperial team “intercept the transmission” to Leia that Vader mentioned in ANH.

Perhaps the biggest question is, will we see Vader use his light saber? There is a decent chance actually. 1. As mentioned above, they have multiple actors which strongly suggests stunt actors for various purposes, and 2. How can you resist not having at least one lightsaber in the film? With all the new technology in glowing lightsaber props, they probably can’t resist a few shots with Vader in the red glow of his own weapon of choice.

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