Keep in mind when Chewbacca died?
In the 1999 e book The New Jedi Order: Vector Prime by R. A. Salvatore, Han Solo’s devoted Wookiee companion, Insurgent Alliance fixture, and massive strolling carpet Chewie purchased the moisture farm. Not surprisingly, he died a hero, saving hundreds of lives.
It was a fairly large deal, even for these Star Wars followers (like me) who didn’t learn the Expanded Universe books and comics at the time. Vector Prime acquired a giant promotional push, together with a business that includes Mark Hamill doing voiceover as Luke Skywalker, and the e book even made it to the New York Instances Greatest Sellers checklist for 4 weeks.
However that was then and that is now, the place the EU is called Star Wars Legends and “doesn’t depend” anymore, and a personality like Chewie appears unlikely to ever die in the trendy Star Wars canon. No, a well-liked determine akin to Chewbacca, who might be endlessly recast on the low cost – and who can proceed to juice merchandising gross sales for untold generations to come back – might be doomed to stay perpetually like some variety of outer area Renfield, beholden to do his grasp’s pop-culture bloodsucking perpetually.
It’s not simply our favourite Wookiee who’s consigned to this dire destiny, of course. C-3PO and R2-D2 are, and can proceed to be, equally stricken, however even characters which have died in the canon like Yoda and Jabba will proceed to rise from the grave again and again to fulfill the Sarlacc-like Easter egg maw of the newest present or sport (most just lately for Yoda on The Acolyte and for Jabba in Star Wars Outlaws). And people are simply the most evident examples. Everybody from Nien Nunb to Child Yoda to the man who acquired his arm minimize off in the cantina in A New Hope is up for grabs. (Ponda Baba. His identify is Ponda Baba.)
I’m occupied with this at present not simply because of the information that Disney is embroiled in a lawsuit over the use of the late Peter Cushing’s likeness as Grand Moff Tarkin in Rogue One, but additionally as a result of of the passing of James Earl Jones on Monday. Jones of course was the voice of Darth Vader, one of the most iconic characters not simply in Star Wars however in all of cinema. The indisputable fact that the actor had signed off on AI recreations of his Vader voice reminds us that whereas he could also be gone now, the Sith Lord can and nearly actually will proceed to pop up in future Star Wars movies and TV reveals.
However Vader, or Anakin Skywalker if you’ll, truly died all the method again in 1983’s Return of the Jedi. And whereas, positive, prequels like Rogue One, flashbacks like in the Obi-Wan Kenobi present, and Drive dream sequences (or no matter that was) in Ahsoka can deliver a personality again, we have now to ask whether or not or not they ought to be bringing a traditional determine like Vader again again and again.
Take the prequel trilogy, the place Anakin’s origin story was advised and he was portrayed first by Jake Lloyd after which Hayden Christensen. I’d argue that whether or not or not you assume these motion pictures finally work as unique tales, they a minimum of have been attempting to do one thing new with Anakin, uncovering the occasions that led to his downfall over the span of three complete motion pictures. Can the similar be stated for Rogue One or Obi-Wan Kenobi, the place Vader was extra of a “how cool is it that we introduced him again” play than anything?
In fact, the risk of dwelling perpetually in an ever-diminishing collection of Star Wars automobiles has now prolonged past the masked and non-human characters. The debate over the use of Cushing in Rogue One some 22 years after he died isn’t a brand new one; ditto Mark Hamill’s cut-scene-like returns as a youthful Luke Skywalker in The Mandalorian and The Ebook of Boba Fett. Even our three foremost heroes from the unique trilogy — Luke, Leia, and Han — are all lifeless now in the canon, however they’ve every come again in some kind or one other too. Plus, in the case of the late Carrie Fisher, digital trickery was additionally employed to (unconvincingly) insert outdated footage of her into The Rise of Skywalker.
Certainly, the notion of the lifeless returning to the land of the dwelling goes again to the very first Star Wars film when Obi-Wan’s ghost whispered, “Run, Luke, run!” However that was an surprising and funky extension of Luke’s story, not a gimmick used to promote extra tickets or Alec Guinness plushies.
Andor, which is the greatest of the live-action Star Wars reveals, additionally options the return of a lifeless character by way of prequel story, however the compelling story of how an bizarre man turns into a insurgent throughout the age of the Empire works as a result of of the present’s wonderful writing and performances, to not point out the avoidance of cute cameos for the sake of them. Alas, that’s the exception relatively than the rule in the Star Wars universe now.
So pour one out not only for the EU model of Chewie, who died saving hundreds relatively than persevering with on perpetually as a shambling echo of his former greatness, but additionally for Threepio, R2, Vader, Yoda, and all the relaxation who won’t ever be allowed to actually transfer on. They’ll persist in order that the Star Wars franchise can proceed to, type of, stay.
Speak to Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottCollura, or hearken to his Star Trek podcast, Transporter Room 3. Or do each!