The original voice of Darth Vader, the Empire’s most iconic villain, could be returning to the franchise in the upcoming Star Wars standalone movie. In a report disclosing a slew of details on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Making Star Wars announced that James Earl Jones is headed back to the vocal booth to lay down his dulcet tones as the former Anakin Skywalker.
Rumors of Vader’s appearance in the spinoff have been circulating for some time now, with this latest batch adding further fuel to the fire. The site, whose reporting on The Force Awakens was impeccable, goes on to explain how Disney has assembled a “Darth Vader dream team.” That includes Jones, as well as a crew who’ve “meticulously recreated” Vader’s costume from A New Hope. And not just any team: Brian Muir’s crew, who were drafted into the galaxy back in 1977 to craft the original Vader helmet. This suggests that director Gareth Edwards is pushing to keep things as canonical as possible.
As for who might be donning the outfit, that remains a mystery. There were preliminary rumblings about Hayden Christensten returning to play the part, but seeing as it won’t involve actual dialogue for the actor, it’s unlikely he’d agree.
Starring Felicity Jones, Mads Mikkelsen, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Jian Wen, Forest Whitaker, Alan Tudyk, and Riz Ahmed, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story opens on December 16.
