“The Darth Vader Dream Team” has been assembled for Darth Vader in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. There were rumblings of things about this for sometime. We have it on good authority that the Darth Vader costume as seen in Star Wars: A New Hope has been meticulously recreated to match A New Hope perfectly. By all accounts the costume is so close to the original everyone is very happy and very impressed with the work done by Brian Muir and his team.

The coolest part is we’ve learned that James Earl Jones, the voice, the heart and soul of Darth Vader will return to speak Darth Vader’s lines in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The Darth Vader we all know from the original Star Wars film is effectively back in look, voice, and spirit. There is still no word on if he has already recorded his lines or will in the post-production phase.

At this time we believe Darth Vader is being played by a new person that has never played him before (more on that in the future). We still don’t know the precise parameters of the role Darth Vader will play in Rogue One. Most of the rumors have him as a prominent player in a few scenes and something to fear for the heroes. If it amounts to a few shots or a few sequences is still up in the air. It certainly does paint the picture that Darth Vader chasing the stolen plans at the start of A New Hope is simply a continuation of the events from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Darth Vader is very much going to be alive and kicking in the future of the Star Wars universe beyond just this film as well.

There’ll be no one to stop us this time. – Darth Vader

Until we see more of Darth Vader from the set, we’ll put this in the rumor corner of the room. But there’s so much chatter about his return it seems imminent.