Should You Tamper With Classic Movie Characters?

The Return Of Darth Vader

Whether or not you like Star Wars, you’ve probably heard of Darth Vader. In fact, even if you have never seen a Star Wars movie you probably know the famous “Luke, I am your father,” quote from Empire Strikes Back. Even though Darth was killed off in the final film of the original trilogy (Return of the Jedi), you WILL see Darth in all his sleep-apnea-mask-sounding glory in the new Star Wars film Rogue One.

Rogue One

Rogue One is the name of the upcoming Star Wars movie being released December 16th of this year. Rogue One is set during the same time period as the very first Star Wars film, so it’s not too big of a stretch for Darth to be in there. But, should we be seeing Darth Vader in a new movie? Darth was in the original three Star Wars films (if you want to get technical the person who would become Darth Vader was also in the three prequel movies, but we didn’t see him in the suit until the end of the third one). Fans were generally excited about Rogue One as it is. This film tells the story of a crew who is tasked with stealing the plans to the giant war ship that ultimately is blown up in the first Star Wars movie. So while this movie was set in the Star Wars universe, it didn’t tentpole on any existing characters, which is a good thing. The introduction of Darth Vader into this movie could be great…or it could mean this film wasn’t strong enough to stand on its own.

Should You Mess With A Beloved Character?

Realistically, the plan from the beginning of Rogue One was probably to have Darth in there. And we’re talking about Disney here, so they are for sure going to do a great job with this next Star Wars film, but will having Darth in a new movie feel right, or should they just leave the legacy of this character untouched? We had a great run of Indiana Jones movies, but then when they brought Indy back for a fourth time it was underwhelming (the 5th Indiana Jones is coming in 2019, and now Disney has the rights to that too, so it probably WILL be awesome). With the return of Darth Vader to the big screen, a new Harry Potter story coming out (based on the stage play by J.K. Rowling and Jack Thorne), is it better for fans to get MORE of their favourite characters, or just remember them in their prime?

If you want to read more about the latest Rogue One news you can find it in the upcoming issue of Entertainment Weekly either on newsstands or digitally using Texture.