One of the only criticisms directed towards the otherwise beloved Rogue One was the decision to digitally recreate Peter Cushing’s Grand Moff Tarkin for a cameo that was as distracting as it was morally questionable.
While the legendary actor’s family had agreed to his appearance in the Star Wars prequel, it was still largely unnecessary in the overall scheme of things to have an actor who died in 1994 make a posthumous CGI appearance in a sci-fi blockbuster that released 22 years later.
The final scene of the movie also saw Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia appear, with the actress’ younger visage superimposed onto body double Ingvild Deila. Sure, it tied Rogue One closer to A New Hope and the original trilogy, but the quality of the film wouldn’t have been affected in the slightest if it had never happened.
Sadly, Fisher died less than two weeks after Rogue One hit theaters in December 2016, and in a fifth anniversary retrospective with StarWars.com, director Gareth Edwards admitted that he never got the chance to meet her.
“The closest I got, I got to visit the set of The Force Awakens, and we were hanging out there for half a day or something. I remember being by the trailers and Carrie came out from the makeup trailer, I guess, just brushed right past me to go in. There were a lot of people stood around, so she went just right past me to head on to the set. I remember just, like anyone would, doing a double take and looking at everyone else going, “Oh, my God! That was Carrie Fisher!”
The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker also had to deal with the untimely passing of the Star Wars icon, and Leia was given about as fitting a sendoff as you could have hoped. It’s just a shame that the director of Rogue One, which many fans believe to be the franchise’s best Disney-era installment, never got to introduce himself.
