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‘Rogue One’ Are Fans Furious About One Darth Vader Moment, Director Opens Up About Different Ending [Spoilers]

By Gregory Wakeman
Published on: 05:56 PST, Dec 23, 2016

Warning: There are some HUGE SPOILERS ahead for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. So if you’ve not seen the blockbuster yet, you should probably proceed with caution.

The return of Darth Vader in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was one of the most anticipated moments in modern cinema. Unfortunately for moviegoers that expected Rogue One to be littered with scenes featuring the iconic villain, he actually only pops up in two.

One of which comes towards the end of the film and shows Darth Vader in full-on baddie mode as he makes his way through a dozen Rebel soldiers without even breaking a sweat. All of which was made even more captivating by the fact that he was just breathing heavily and swinging his lightsaber with an unerring precision while dismembering those in front of him.

[Image by Lucasfilm]

However, Darth Vader’s first scene in Rogue One caused some fans to grimace. Not all of it, just the moment where Darth Vader made a pun. For those of who you can’t recall Darth Vader’s quick dalliance with comedy, it occurs when he’s discussing the Death Star with Director Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) on Mustafar.

After Krennic becomes a little too sniveling towards his superior, Darth Vader (once again voiced by James Earl Jones) decides to bring him back down to the ground by using the dark-side of the Force to choke him. Then, with Krennic down on his knees and gasping for air, Darth Vader turns to his stricken underling, revealing his clenched hand that’s depriving him of air, and utters, “Be careful not to choke on your aspirations.”

There were some Star Wars fans that were a little taken aback by Darth Vader’s quip, though; insisting that it was actually a little too forced and against type.

The inclusion of Darth Vader’s pun is all the more curious considering the drastic alterations that Rogue One went through. In fact, director Gareth Edwards has opened up about how much Rogue One changed throughout its production, even revealing that its conclusion underwent many modifications.

As those of you who are still reading are more than aware, at the end of Rogue One everyone on Scarif dies, which means that Jyn (Felicity Jones), Cassian (Diego Luna), Krennic, and basically everyone that Rogue One has introduced us to over the course of its running time perishes.

[Image by Lucasfilm]

Gareth Edwards admitted to Empire Magazine, via The Verge, that the original script saw the main characters survive. Not because he wanted them too but because he assumed Disney wouldn’t let Rogue One kill them off. But after reading the script for Rogue One, the production staff on the film soon informed Edwards that he needed to kill them.

Gareth Edwards explained the reasoning behind the slaughter.

“Everyone read that and there was this feeling of like, ‘They’ve got to die, right?’ And everyone was like, ‘Yeah, can we?’ We thought we weren’t going to be allowed to but Kathy [Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm] and everyone at Disney were like ‘Yeah it makes sense. I guess they have to because they’re not in A New Hope.’ I kept waiting for someone to go, ‘You know what? Could we just film an extra scene where we see Jyn and Cassian, they’re okay and they’re on another planet?’ And it never came. No one ever gave us that note, so we got to do it.”

Rogue One has been praised for its conclusion, which actually brings closure to Jyn and those involved in the Battle Of Scarif’s journey. Especially when compared to the seemingly never-ending sagas of the Marvel and DC universes.

Rogue One is now in cinemas across the world.

[Featured Image by Lucasfilm]

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