Darth Vader to be resurrected

[Eframepilot]

Darth Vader to be resurrected

DARTH VADER TO BE RESURRECTED
Tuesday November 13,2012
By Lizzie Catt, Lisa Higgins and Jack Teague

ICONIC space villain Darth Vader is to be brought back from the dead for a new trilogy of Star Wars films.

Following news that Disney has bought the rights to the lucrative sci-fi franchise and plans to make at least three more movies, industry insiders say the evil Vader will grace the big screen again.

“He’s an integral part of the franchise. Replacing him is virtually impossible,” explains a film mole.

“The plan is for him to return and play a significant role in the new films.”

Former bodybuilder turned actor David Prowse donned the black body armour in the original three films but the character was voiced by James Earl Jones.

Actor Hayden Christensen, who starred in the subsequent Star Wars prequels, was the last actor to appear in the suit following his character Anakin Skywalker’s descent to the Dark Side.

Writer Michael Arndt is already working on the new Star Wars scripts.

Fellow old favourites Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia – played by Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher – have already been tipped to reprise their respective roles.

While Vader seemingly met his end in the 1983 film The Return Of The Jedi it seems this will not stop his comeback.

“This is science fiction remember,” we’re told. “Darth Vader will rise from the ashes.”

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[Iroscato]

I don't believe this for a second. First off, the Express is an unreliable piece of shit tabloid, and in the article the sources are extremely vague. "Film mole"? "Industry insider"? Pah.
If the next trilogy is a conventional sequel to the OT, then there is no way in hell Disney would desecrate the series like this. I hope.

[Sidewinder]

I had fanfic ideas in which a Jedi (Kyp Durron) is cloned, and the clone programmed to believe he is Vader resurrected, before it's released from the Spaarti cloning cylinder. Of course, this was before The Force Unleashed outright stated it was impossible to clone a force-sensitive individual- at least, not without getting a thousand failures for each success.

As for these plans, I HOPE they're joking. The OT was about Anakin Skywalker's redemption, the PT about his fall; resurrect Vader, and Luke's efforts (and the movies he made the efforts in) become meaningless.

[Eframepilot]

I don't believe this for a second. First off, the Express is an unreliable piece of shit tabloid, and in the article the sources are extremely vague. "Film mole"? "Industry insider"? Pah.
If the next trilogy is a conventional sequel to the OT, then there is no way in hell Disney would desecrate the series like this. I hope.

That would be a massive relief.

[streetad]

Isn't going to happen, except maybe in flashback or if the films are set pre-ROTJ. What, is he a good guy now?

[Lagmonster]

The cheese way of going about it is to simply have another villian don similar armour and then claim the Sith title of "Vader". They seem to pull the titles out of their asses anyway, and it wouldn't be hard to rig up identical-looking armour.

Of course, that's from the "Friday 13th part V" line of film thought, so we don't want that.

[Jaepheth]

There's plenty of Vader EU stuff you could make without resurrecting him.

A movie adaptation of TIE Fighter, for instance; where Vader is hunting down Admiral Harkov.

Or just a movie of him hunting down surviving jedi.

[Ted C]

I suppose it's possible that some new villain would dress up in identical armor to mess with the heads of Luke and Leia. That might make it plausible.

He might also appear in some kind of dream sequence, like in TESB on Dagobah.

(and it seems Lagmonster is ahead of me)

[Boeing 757]

“He’s an integral part of the franchise. Replacing him is virtually impossible,” explains a film mole.

And yet, he barely graced the prequels for all but five minutes, and most folks went to see them anyhow. And despite Maul, Tyranus and Grevious coming off as subpar to most folks, I attribute that more so to George's failure to flesh out their characters effectively than to the lack of Vader as a main antagonist.

[Srelex]

Yeah, also calling BS on this. I could see them rip off Dark Empire and resurrect Palpatine somehow, but this article does seem far too built as internet ragebait to be true.

[Kreller1]

*Grumbles about the EU* I just don't see Disney taking this step with a well established character like Vader. Perhaps some other minor character or something, such as Tarkin.

[Captain Seafort]

Perhaps some other minor character or something, such as Tarkin.

I wouldn't call the main villain of the original film a minor character. Besides, there isn't an actor alive with the professional stature to fill his boots (or pink fluffy slippers as the case may be).

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

I was optimistic to begin with, but...
I'd like to think this really was just a wild rumour, or a test rumour, but I think it's actually bad enough to be true. Consider this scenario; Disney doesn't give a flying fuck about the actual story or mythology or meaning (you may laugh now, but why else are we here)- or anything other than milking the franchise as their cash cow.

This is exactly what someone who doesn't get it, who only sees bottom line, who does not understand fiction except as product, would come up with. Jawdroppingly stupid and craps all over the hero's journey and the whole damn' plot, but if that doesn't matter then yes, the management at Disney probably are capable of missing the point that badly.

The uh-oh line there is "this is science fiction remember"- which translates from Hollywoodese as "screw logic; they can do wierd shit in the future. Anything goes." At this rate I think maybe the people who bailed on the franchise around the time of The Phantom Menace are going to turn out to have been right. Downhill from here, then.

[Batman]

Not particularly likely. Yes, Disney doesn't give a damn about anything but the bottom line-which is precisely why they are not likely to do something like that, at least not unless they're doing a complete reboot. Because to the very people who they rely on to pay to watch their iteration of Star Wars Darth Vader is dead. You don't make money off an established franchise by pissing off the the majority of your fanbase.

[Havok]

OK, for fucks sake.

Look. Disney bought ABC, it barely changed. Disney bought ESPN, it barely changed. Disney bought Pixar, it barely changed. Disney bought Marvel, it barely changed.

Why the fuck is Disney going to come in, who exactly is "Disney" in all there scenarios, and start making wholesale changes when they have pretty much zero track record to do so.

Lucasfilm is going to be run by GL's hand picked replacement. She reports DIRECTLY to the CEO of Disney, so long as she is making money and Alan Horn himself doesn't decide he wants to make the new movies all Gungans and Ewoks, there is no "Disney" and they are going to leave Lucasfilm the fuck alone.

[Broken]

You don't drop four billion dollars and then attempt to strangle a potentially huge, long-term cash-cow in its crib. Or if someone in Disney really did, the shareholders should sue since that is clearly not in the best interests of the company. But frankly, this reads like a troll, I wouldn't put any stock in it (now watch that statement come back to bite me in the ass).

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

[quote=Broken](now watch that statement come back to bite me in the ass).
[/quote]-

Exactly. That's what I mean by it's being bad enough to be true. "Disney" being the board of directors and the shareholders they answer to, and yes, offending the fans to that extent would be a ridiculously bad move.

So bad I can't see why this is being floated as an idea at all unless there is some industry gossip to support it, unless somebody has got the idea in their head to go dark and gritty, and for that they need, who, hm- right, Vader, he'll do.

It's not impossible, remember Alien; Resurrection? Within the franchise, Palpatine came back from the dead. Many times. Maul is apparently back from the dead. It would be ridiculous and pointless, but not that much of a stretch really.
And before the inevitable "the fans" comment, who was it who was celebrating the (still unproven) "Fact" of Disney largely ignoring the EU, and its' legions of fans? Exactly the same thing. Can't have one without the other, can't have A without A. Can't ignore the fans without ignoring the fans.

They might drop four billion dollars on it and attempt to make it their own, exert creative control; I think they'd be a bit mad if they didn't. ABC, ESPN, Pixar, Marvel- they all basically knew what they were doing. Had a direction, all Disney had to do was show up, buy them out and get ready to roll in piles of cash. Not the case with Lucasfilm.

Thinking about it further I don't think troll, I reckon test rumour; unofficial, viral focus group- float the idea, leak it, get the fan reaction to it before committing any kind of serious development time and money. Let's hope enough people say "hell no" to get their attention.

[Simon_Jester]

I was optimistic to begin with, but...
I'd like to think this really was just a wild rumour, or a test rumour, but I think it's actually bad enough to be true. Consider this scenario; Disney doesn't give a flying fuck about the actual story or mythology or meaning (you may laugh now, but why else are we here)- or anything other than milking the franchise as their cash cow.

This is exactly what someone who doesn't get it, who only sees bottom line, who does not understand fiction except as product, would come up with. Jawdroppingly stupid and craps all over the hero's journey and the whole damn' plot, but if that doesn't matter then yes, the management at Disney probably are capable of missing the point that badly.

The uh-oh line there is "this is science fiction remember"- which translates from Hollywoodese as "screw logic; they can do wierd shit in the future. Anything goes." At this rate I think maybe the people who bailed on the franchise around the time of The Phantom Menace are going to turn out to have been right. Downhill from here, then.

I think it's premature because there's so much tabloidism surrounding this. It's quite possible for Disney to go mad and make bad art, but there are predictably going to be rumors about a new Star Wars movie, a lot of them self-contradictory.

So... [shrug]

[Crazedwraith]

I think this statement is about as creditable as the one from Carrie Fisher saying Leia's going to kill Han in a marital spat.

[Havok]

They might drop four billion dollars on it and attempt to make it their own, exert creative control; I think they'd be a bit mad if they didn't. ABC, ESPN, Pixar, Marvel- they all basically knew what they were doing. Had a direction, all Disney had to do was show up, buy them out and get ready to roll in piles of cash. Not the case with Lucasfilm.

Are you patently stupid or just completely hysterical. PLEASE, point out where and how Lucasfilm doesn't know what they are doing or where they are not making piles of cash.

[Havok]

I think this statement is about as creditable as the one from Carrie Fisher saying Leia's going to kill Han in a marital spat.

This is SuperShadow level shit right here.

[Solauren]

At this point, I'd like to remind everyone that the original plan for Dark Empire was for the main villian to be a clone/resurrected Darth Vader, and not the Emperor returned.

Only Lucas being in control prevented that.

Lucas is no longer in control.....

[Batman]

Lucas was in control when The Crystal Star, the Jedi Academy Trilogy/Darksaber and the NJO happened, too.

[Havok]

At this point, I'd like to remind everyone that the original plan for Dark Empire was for the main villian to be a clone/resurrected Darth Vader, and not the Emperor returned.

Only Lucas being in control prevented that.

Lucas is no longer in control.....

The reason that was the case was because Lucas had a no use list and Vader was on it. Same with Yoda.

Even still, it was just supposed to be an impostor of Vader, not an actual clone or resurrection. It is also unknown (conflicting quotes) if it was Lucas or Veitch/Kennedy that suggested using Palpatine instead.

Even still it's just a comic book from 1991. You are not playing to the small % of Star Wars fans that actually read or cared about that story anymore, you are playing to the movie going planet now.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Right, first you call me stupid, then I realise I'm talking to somebody who actually has faith in Disney's editorial direction, in the field of SF. Yah. Riiight...

I don't. Not that you seem able to understand the concept of a difference of opinion. Where and how Lucas dropped the ball; you have to ask? The missing third trilogy for a start. That it took two movies worth of runup to get a halfway decent prequel. Ahsoka. Jar- Jar. The live action TV series that the great flannelled one couldn't get off the ground. Continuity rewrites like TFU. Editorial control over the EU, and the faults thereof.

Recall my initial reaction to the buyout news was that it could be good, they couldn't screw it up worse than it already was; if this is the direction Disney want to go in, or are testing the waters to see if it's safe to go in, then it turns out that they can. If this is just a wild rumour, great- or if they ditch the plan, still good. This is Hollywood's lowest common denominator here though, so I reckon a certain amount of pessimism and skepticism is only healthy.

It's also hard to make piles of cash when you've just sold off the thing that was making money in the first place, so; not now.