[Speculation] Darth Vader - Possible Spin-Off Discussion

Hiiiya! So anybody else excited by the idea of stand-alone Vader film? One that took place between Ep 3 and 4? Would be interesting if it explored the Emperor sending Vader on some secret mission to a Sith temple and then ordering a bunch of assassins to go after him. Fight breaks out in ala the Raid and Vader gets to show off his skills taking out a bunch of trained dark siders. Prove himself as a true Dark Lord of the Sith. Sort of make it an action film tone similar to all the anthology films having their own sub-genre.

Anybody else think this would be awesome???

 

Yes please .

 

Who would be the protagonist?

 

I think we should wait how well Suicide Squad is received. It's not easy to make a tent-pole movie about a villain. I guess Dredd would be similar, I liked the version played by Urban, but how well did it do at the box office? Vader of course shares some similarities with the Judge Dredd character.

 

A film with an obviously evil, masked character as the protagonist, who spends his time hunting down and murdering people, is simply not a good idea, IMO. And not just for Box Office reasons. It strikes against the hopeful, optimistic and moral spirit of Star Wars. Would be like a Lord of the Rings film with the Witch King as the lead.

 

I agree with JabbatheHumanBeing. Also, I'd prefer to see the "Star Wars Stories" spin off into newer territory. I mean, we already had six films about Anakin/Vader, and we know Vader will turn up in Rogue One, plus there's a reasonable chance of seeing at least Anakin in the sequel trilogy.

 

Well obviously it wouldn't be your usual SW-movie, it would be a dark and gritty version of the universe, similar maybe to the universe presented in the Darth Vader comic-book. It would probably get an R-rating. I think however that is is quite possible and could be great if director and writer know how to handle the character. They'd need to give him foes that are even more despicable, which is of course quite doable.

FOX once thought about making a Magneto movie.

 

You've obviouly never read any of the very popular solo Vader comics have you? Having Vader on search for an ancient sith holocron and being the one hunted by The Emperors assassins would make him the clear underdog and a fun villian to root for. There are plenty of cool villians like Vader, Magneto, Etc that audiences love to explore more and would get behind.

 

That's not obvious, no, as I have read a number of them. If you look back at my post, you will note that I was talking about why this would be a bad idea for a major, global tent-pole film, not a "popular comic," whose audience is probably 0.000000000001 percent of the global cinema-going audience.

So though a niche group of people may enjoy rallying behind a villain, it's simply not viable for a major motion picture, IMO.

 

Seems like it isn't that different than the conversation we had in the Boba Fett thread.

There have been plenty of popular and well received movies and television shows with the bad guy as the lead. Add one of the most iconic and popular villains in cinematic history and I'm sure it could work. I'm a firm believer that anything done well is going to find an audience.

That said I'm in the been there done that camp. He is already the focus of the saga films. I think its another idea that would work as an animated film, but not a live action movie.

 

You mean the movie - Darth Vader's Christmas Break - yeah I'm looking forward to it....

 

The Vader comics are great fun, but they're not neccesarily transferable to a film narrative. In recent years I think there's been a real effort made to present Darth Vader as a real threat rather than simply a pop culture icon, and I think part of maintaining that will be in using him sparingly

 

I think I wouldn't mind an ANH sequel, to fill in the gap between ANH and ESB.

See Lord Vader find out who it actually was that blew up the Death Star...and what he did to find and capture that particular person.

The only problem is that such a film couldn't make use of the Rebel characters of Leia, Han and Luke...

 

As someone who has Vader as their favorite character and normally would love to see him have his own film, I agree. I've really been liking how the how the new canon has been treating Vader, it's nice to finally have a scary Vader again. Something the old eu didn't handle as well IMO, as they didn't seem to know what to do with him at times.

 

Sorry, gotta disagree. Audiovisual media should respect rhr integrity of the OT and PT. I guess Rogue kknda violates that, but just this once.

 

Because I love the character, I'd see it, but I agree it would be hard to cast him in a "protagonist" light. They MIGHT be able to make him a believable anti-hero. There's a lot of material to mine, that's for sure. I had thought that the purpose of the anthology films was to explore original characters and stories, but the Han Solo movie shoots that theory out of the sky. I'm really on the fence about this one, and whether or not I hope they do it.

 

This type of martial arts movie would work far better with a young Darth Maul than an old lumbering Vader.

 

Wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a Disney owned prequel era film anytime soon.

One thing with Vader is we NEVER got to see him at his "prime" between ROTS and ONH. By the time he's in Empire he's already this experienced Sith Lord but showing Vader proving himself the master of the darkside to the Emperoer is an interesting story to explore. Plus I'm a giant Vader homer, and I admit now that we have the technology of today it would be nice to just see him kickass and take names on the big screen again.

 

You're kidding. Vader is no Witch King. He's the face of Star Wars, and an American pop culture touchstone of iconic proportion. Even people who don't watch, know or care about Star Wars recognize that "robot with the laser sword". Of course a Vader movie sells. A Vader movie sells more than any of the other anthology movies.

The series has fleshed him out as a character that is more than just "evil" and fans are always going to be hungry for more.

The Force Unleashed was a commercial success. As Suicide Squad will be. Villains are IN now. And even if they weren't - Vader will be.

Of course Disney is going to do a Vader movie. Why sit on that? It could be 10 years, 15 years before we get it. But it's Vader. It's a given.

 

A film heavily featuring Vader is fine. Just not as the protagonist. He already suffered enough demystification with the PT. Following him around while he agonizes over killing people, or broods over the Rebellion, does not a compelling story make, IMO. Leave this one for the fan fic. There are new characters and new places to explore. Enough so that we need not turn a major iconic screen villain into the hero. Vader had his rise and fall. I don't need to see his in between.

And I'm not interested in the villains are IN fad, and hope Star Wars isn't plagued by a comic book movie junk ethos.

 

Yuck i dont think anybody said they wanted to see that has anyone here ever seen AGENT 47 for example? Pretty straight forward action flick where antagonist is a cold blooded killer and it works great. Vader being assigned on some covert mission to protect a force sensitive child who he has to deliver to Emperor while having to assasinate a giant fodder of bounty hunters and forces out to kill him would make a great fun action flick. I would gladly pay $12 to see that on a big screen.

 

Sorry, but I thought Agent 47 was abysmal (it deserves its 8% rating at Rotten Tomatoes), and don't see that as a compelling example for what a Vader film could be. In fact, it's a compelling example of how wrong this sort of thing can go.

And I think there are far more interesting stories to tell than an uber bad guy fighting lesser bad guys. But that's just me. And most other people.

 

To each their own I guess, just using the Hitman franchise as an example of a successful franchise with assassin/killler as protagonist. You might not like Hitman or its sequel but they obviously have an audience if its making money back for producers. Im sure a Vader centric action movie would be much better written and critical success.

 

What is, in your view, the thematic value of a Vader story wherein he fights off bounty hunters? And what's the entry point for audiences? Who does on relate to/ root for? In your scenario, I'd choose the force sensitive child as the protagonist, not Vader. Because frankly, almost no one will relate to Vader. Apart from a few people for whom "Vader is cool" is enough to sustain a whole film, and/or psychopaths who want to be dark-masked villains. Yeah, you can show the paternal side of Vader with the child (in your suggestion), but that can only go so far with a faceless character. Vader is a antagonist, and he should stay that way.

But who knows? Maybe the most brilliant filmmaker in history will come along and make it work.