It’s Official: Darth Vader Will be in Rogue One

There's been a lot of hubbub over Rogue One: A Star Wars Story lately. First, there was the news that Gareth Edwards' film was undergoing reshoots, which initially seemed to indicate all was not right in a galaxy far, far away. A little digging showed that this wasn't necessarily true. The reshoots were scheduled even before principal photography began, and are a common practice for films of this size so that the filmmakers can make adjustments after seeing the film in assembly. As Entertainment Weekly reported, the reshoots were originally planned for the spring, but were moved to mid-summer to give Edwards and his team more time to see exactly what they needed. “The changes have everything to do with clarity and character development and all take place [as inserts] within scenes we’ve already shot,” a source told EW. 

Then there was "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story: The Official Visual Story Guide" leak in May, which revealed a bunch of character names and a look at some of the new ship designs we'll see when the film releases. Not a huge breach, but still, at the time it felt like another snafu.

None of this would have been that huge a deal if this wasn't a Star Wars film, and it was amplified by the fact that the rollout for The Force Awakens was pulled off with Swiss watch precision. Today, however, we're guessing people are going to start getting excited for Rogue One again, as EW just revealed, on their cover no less, that Darth Vader will be in the film.

Of course this makes complete sense, but his involvement was still a state secret up until this cover story hit. Considering the film's centered on a band of resistance fighters, led by Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), who unite for a daring mission to steal the Death Star plans, Darth Vader's absence would have been more noteworthy. But it's welcome news nonetheless, and hardly the only information that EW has revealed in their big scoop.

There are the slimmer walkers, pictured above, called the AT-ACTs, and "flatter, fang-like interceptors known as TIE Strikers," in the film. There's new information on Jyn Erso, and her father, played by Mads Mikkelsen, a scientist "whose knowledge is sought by both sides." There are details on Erso's squad, played by Diego Luna, Jiang Wen, Donnie Yen, Riz Ahmed, Forest Whitaker, and Alan Tudyk (as a performance-capture droid, no less). They look at the new villain, played by Ben Mendelsohn, and his his black-masked enforcer (pictured below). There's discussion about the reshoots, and how they're adding to the story. And finally, yes, there's the reveal about Vader, and "what his return means for the larger Star Wars storytelling universe."

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story opens on December 16, 2016.