Earlier on Friday in London at Star Wars Celebration, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story surprised fans at its panel with a special trailer just for the audience in attendance. (The rest of the panel, including a sizzle reel, was streamed worldwide.) The big story about this special trailer: the appearance of Darth Vader at the end .
Now, we don’t see much of Vader. Actually, just a reflection, but it’s a pretty nifty visual. Vader is aboard the Death Star, but we only see his silhouette reflected in that shiny Death Star floor, surrounded by a hue of red light. Accompanied by, of course, the breathing.
A few hours after the panel, Edwards met with the assembled group of writers to discuss the film and the trailer. Edwards was asked how it was decided that what we saw would be the first image of Vader released.
He explained it all came about while filming Rogue One. “They built the whole set. It had a reflection,” said Edwards. “Vader went in there and we looked at the reflection and said, ‘That’s f*cking cool.’ As we were filming, we just tried playing around and things happened that you wouldn’t have asked for. So, that was a great example of that.”
Edwards continued, “He’s the most iconic character in the history of cinema, actually. And to hear everyone cheer when they saw him, you feel like that’s worth everything.”
No one seemed to have an answer as to just when this trailer will make its way online or when images of Vader will be released to the people who weren’t at Star Wars Celebration, but it’s probably safe to say we’ll be hearing a lot more from Vader over the next few months. From the crowd’s reaction in London, people love Darth Vader and his presence will only make people more excited to see Rogue One.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will be in theaters on December 16.
Mike Ryan lives in New York City and has written for The Huffington Post, Wired, Vanity Fair and New York magazine. He is senior entertainment writer at Uproxx. You can contact him directly on Twitter.
