Rogue One takes place during the era of the original trilogy that we all know and love. When that was first revealed many fans wondered how many familiar characters from previous movies we would see in the movie. It would feel weird to not have familiar characters considering where this movie took place.Disney and Lucasfilm said nothing to hint at the return of legacy characters, as they kept saying that it was a stand alone movie with its own characters. However as trailers started to be released fans spotted some familiar characters like Mon Monthma, Bail Organa, and even Darth Vader. This made fans believe that those characters were the only legacy characters in the movie, but it was not everyone, two more important characters from the original trilogy also made there return.
One of those characters is Grand Moff Tarkin. When you consider his role in episode 4, it would have been odd to not see him in this movie. He is the third in command for the Empire behind only Darth Vader and the Emperor. So his inclusion in this movie was almost necessary and as it turns out he is in the movie. They got Peter Cushing, who played him in 1977, to return to play the role. Which is odd because he passed away over 20 years ago. Using similar technology to the one used in Tron legacy and Captain America civil War, the animators at ILM were able to digitally bring a dead actor back to life. For the most part, the effect worked really well. It was about 95% close to being perfect. The only time in my opinion that the effect is obvious is when they go close in on his eyes. His eyes look lifeless and you can see the animations, but besides that it was really impressive. People argue that he didn't need to be in the movie at all, but I completely disagree. It completely makes sense for him to be there and I'm glad they took that chance. Above everything, its fan service, which is not a bad thing. As a huge star wars fan, I got chills when he said "you may fire when ready" just like he did in Episode 4. While the technology is no quite there, it was pretty close and in my opinion, the chance they took paid off.
Another legacy character that was brought back for this movie was Princess Leia. Similar to Tarkin, her inclusion made complete sense. Considering the movie was about stealing the death star plans and in episode four she has the plans, it would have been weird for her not to be there in some way. Her role is far smaller than Tarkin's however, as she is only in one scene. She appears when the Rebels have successfully stolen the plays and a rebel captain brings her the plans. He hands her the plans and asks "what did they send us" and the same Leia from Episode 4 turns and says "hope". She appears using the same technology as Tarkin. They used an effect to make her look like Carie Fisher in 1977 and again it is really close. Again the effect is only noticeable when you look at the eyes. The way the used her character it really adds connective tissue to the saga as a whole. Even though the effect is not quite there yet, its really cool that they went for it. The effects used for Tarkin and Leia overall were really impressive and you believe that those are those charters. You can see that we are only years away from seeing this effect be perfected and seeing movies with all dead actors.
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