Darth Vader Will Return To The ‘Star Wars’ Universe In A Big, Bad, And Bombastic Way

If you left the theater after watching Star Wars 7: The Force Awakens and found that the toddler tantrums and prissy petulance of Kylo Ren left you longing for the dastardly dash, stoic majesty and villainous grandeur of Darth Vader, here’s the good news: The old prince of crows and baron of blackness is set to make a return to the Star Wars universe in a big, bad, and bombastic way.

We’ve all been tantalized with the trailer for Star Wars: Rogue One, which shows a shot of Darth Vader breathing like an angry asthmatic.

Fans are understandably thrilled that the original voice of Vader, James Earl Jones, is on board to reprise his role in the new Star Wars spin-off.

Coming so soon after the underwhelming experience that was The Force Awakens, the news that the most sinister Sith Lord of them all was back, no matter in what capacity or how marginal the role, was sort of enough to help us forget just how pathetic and unworthy of a villain Kylo Ren turned out to be.

Yet, everything Darth got a little more Darth, when Rogue One director Gareth Edwards recently revealed the man in the mask will be a “huge presence” in the film.

Speaking at the Star Wars Celebration event in London last week, Edwards explained that the intergalactic tyrant is going to be peppered throughout the film in a very liberal manner.

“He’s got such a gravitational pull, the second he shows up you just get sucked into Darth Vader. So it was a process to try and figure out how to pepper that in in a way that felt right.”

It also transpires that beyond the dizzying heights or, indeed, devastating lows of Star Wars: Rogue One, Lucasfilm leaked that they are planning a top-secret virtual reality project featuring the corrupted Jedi with the massive attitude problem.

Empire reports that the project is being developed by ILMxLAB, the experimental wing of Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light & Magic effects house.

Man of Steel and Batman Begins screenwriter David S. Goyer is penning the project, which is still in its infancy. But make no mistake, it’ll be all about Vader, who Goyer describes as the most iconic and complex Star Wars character.

“What character is so iconic that we need to know more? Where we can’t sleep at night and want to experience things that can’t be experienced in film, or can’t be experienced in a novel? And we came up with… this person.”

As the Inquisitr previously reported, “It’s hard to hold a snuffed out light to the terrible tragedy and strutting evil of Darth Vader.”

“The Star Wars films are pretty much Vader’s tale alone. The original trilogy was all about him being a deadbeat dad and his struggle to build a meaningful relationship with his son, while simultaneously destroying planets, wiping out civilizations, and building an evil empire to end all evil empires.

“The prequels, on the other hand, were all about Anakin Skywalker, and how a young boy with a lot of potential was consumed by rage, corrupted by the dark side, and ended up with breathing difficulties and wearing a cool mask.”

Even The Force Awakens struggles in vain to find a way out of the shadow cast by Vader. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the awkward ways and surly disposition of Vader’s grandson, Kylo Ren.

“When the mask is off, Ren looks like an awkward Power Ranger, who’s gone a bit rock n’ roll. When we see Vader without his mask in Return of the Jedi, it’s like looking at the face of a washed-up alcoholic, who’s served ten tours of duty in hell and is consumed by regret and haunted by the terrible things he’s seen and done. In short, Vader is the real deal. Kylo is just a little bit of a try hard.”

It’s doubtful if Ren will ever have a virtual reality project to call his own. Although no one is sure of what form it will take — and we’ll have to wait a few years to find out, Goyer explained — when the Darth Vader show does finally roll into town, it’ll be “pretty mind-blowing.”

“The world I came up with, that I’m pushing, is you are ‘the visitor’ – the visitor in this story that’s happening around you that you may have some effect on.”

The mind boggles.

[Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images]