James Earl Jones Will Voice Darth Vader in ‘Star Wars: Rogue One’
There are a lot of Darth Vaders. In video games and cartoons and ancillary appearances, many men have filled his armor and respirator. But if you’re making a Star Wars movie, then there’s only one true voice of Vader: James Earl Jones.
Gathered amongst Entertainment Weekly’s many Rogue One: A Star Wars Story-related revelations this week comes this one, that Jones will reprise his role at least once more as the Sith Lord Supreme. While the body of Vader will be played by “a variety of large-framed performers” in place of David Prowse (the original Trilogy’s Vader body, who’s now 80 years old) Jones will deliver Vader’s lines as only he can.
Just don’t expect a lot of lines. Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy told EW that Vader’s role in Rogue One is a small one (hence no new image of him yet):
Kennedy says Rogue One has to make careful use of Vader. ‘He will be in the movie sparingly,’ she says. ‘But at a key, strategic moment, he’s going to loom large.’
The primary antagonist in Rogue One is instead Ben Mendelsohn’s Director Orson Krennic (A director? Named Orson? Does he have a space sled named Rosebud?), who’s described as an “ambitious Imperial officer” who wants to impress the Emperor. The competition for Palpatine’s favor means Krennic and Vader are “barely allies,” particularly because Vader “[isn’t] beholden” to the Empire’s hierarchy. He does what he wants and says what he wants. And with a voice like that, who can blame him? Rogue One comes to theaters on December 16.