Director Gareth Edwards talks about how filming Darth Vader in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was like filming a car commercial. Darth Vader made his debut in George Lucas’ 1977 Star Wars: A New Hope (Episode IV) before returning in a pair of Star Wars sequels and prequels. Following Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm, 2016’s Rogue One marked the first time Vader appeared in live-action since 2005’s Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. And, thanks to actors Spencer Wilding, Daniel Naprous, and, of course, James Earl Jones, Vader felt as good as new.
As an anthology spin-off and immediate prequel to Star Wars: A New Hope, Rogue One told the story of how the rebels, led by Jyn Erso, stole the Death Star plans that led to Luke Skywalker’s fateful shot in the original film. Upon its release, Rogue One quickly became a hit, grossing over $1 billion at the global box office against its $220 million budget. Its success led to the development of its other anthology projects, beginning and ending with Solo: A Star Wars Story. Now, Lucasfilm’s primary focus is on Disney+ shows including The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Andor, a Rogue One spinoff chronicling the earlier missions of its eponymous spy.
In honor of Rogue One’s fifth anniversary, Edwards spoke with StarWars.com about bringing back Vader, as well as Tarkin and Leia, with digital effects. Praising John Knoll, Executive Creative Director at ILM/Senior Visual Effects Supervisor and Director of Photography, Greig Fraser, Edwards compared filming Vader to working on a car commercial. Read what he had to say below:
“[With Tarkin] we had to sort of dial it back to the way they lit scenes in A New Hope, in the late ‘70s. And then it would start to feel more real. Same with Vader. Even with shots of Vader, we did a little test shoot. Greig would always say that lighting Vader is like doing a car commercial. He’s got more in common with photographing a car than a human because of all the light reflections and things. [Mimics helmet] We kept looking at these tests going, ‘This doesn’t feel like Vader, does it? What are we doing wrong? It just doesn’t feel the same.’ And we started realizing that normally when you do a shot, you do an over-the-shoulder shot, and you film someone and then you do the reverse when you come around for a conversation. You come around. [Mimics camera rotating] In the original trilogy, when they would come around to do the reverse, the person in the foreground would always feel bigger than Vader, which felt wrong. So, they always pull the camera back a little bit and then raise it so that Vader, his eye line was always the highest thing in the frame. If you didn’t do that, Vader felt small and not powerful.”
Rogue One certainly presented Vader to fans in a way that felt familiar while also improving upon his foundation. For example, the scene at Vader’s fortress on Mustafar offers insight into Vader’s mindset between the main canonical entries and the subsequent and climactic hallway scene that has since become one of Star Wars’ most iconic sequences. So much so, that The Mandalorian season 2 finale more or less mirrored it as Luke dismantled a battalion of Dark Troopers. That being said, Rogue One and The Mandalorian are perhaps the best examples of contemporary Star Wars done right (according to the majority of fans).
Edwards was the only director Lucasfilm even considered to helm Rogue One, and the director has no interest in making another Star Wars film following his triumph. However, in a time when the Star Wars sequel trilogy was dividing the fandom due to its handling of beloved characters, Rogue One garnered love across the board thanks to its take on Vader, even despite the controversial digital recreations of Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher. It's fascinating to hear Edwards explain how such an iconic character's power and presence was created from behind the camera, and his approach certainly paid off, as Vader's appearance in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story more than did the villain justice.
Source: StarWars.com
