CT Could Christopher Lee have had a part?

The more I think about it, the more it does seem odd that Christopher Lee was never asked to play a part in the OT. It would have been pretty sweet to have him as an admiral in a new hope for instance, one of the high ranking crew members along with Tarkin or even in one of the follow ups as some sort of villian

Share your feelings here and vote too about what could have/should have or shouldnt have been (and wasn't)

 

General rule of them - Christopher Lee made anything he was involved with better.

 

And, yes, that includes "Castle of Fu Manchu".

 

It would have been entertaining to see Lee as an Imperial rival of Tarkin, so that Cushing and Lee could snark at each other. That really wouldn't add much to the story, though.

 

This lol. He was a gifted actor. I think he would have made a great Imperial Admiral but I do think he was casted well for Count Dooku. They needed more experienced actors in the PT already

 

He's Christopher Lee

That's all I need to say

 

Apart from being a worthy alternative to Peter Cushing as Tarkin in SW/ANH, he could have been great as the earlier, nastier version of Moff Jerjerrod as seen in the Rough Draft of ROTJ (who sided with the Emperor against Vader). The character was changed drastically, however.

No other characters in the OT really spring to mind - all the Imperial officers are deliberately weak, and you wouldn't cast Christopher Lee in such roles, too dominant a personality. I could picture him as Admiral Ozzel if the character lived through the whole movie, with Vader forced to tolerate this arrogant officer right up until the point that they lost the Falcon at Cloud City - only then choking him to death for his incompetence, and promoting Piett.

He could have played Palpatine, but it would have been a very different portrayal.

 

I think Lee would have made a good General Veers.

But to have them both in the same film would have been out of the question, everyone would have thought instantly of Dracula.

 

I think he would work best as Veers in terms of the finished films. I agree with Darth Nub. Lee would have performed well as the nastier Jerjerrod from the earlier ROTJ draft. However, if he was Veers, Veers would have come off as a bit more frightening. I think that Veers works with what we got because that actor portrays him as very professional and cold. Lee would have made his voice and face somewhat more frightening as Veers.

I never cross-dress as a man except when I'm on stage in talent shows. I have a deep voice and I can sound just like Heath Ledger's Joker and Jim Carrey's Grinch. I can do a moderately good impression of Christopher Lee as Saruman. I just said Veers' lines in Lee's voice, and it's actually more chilling now. Damn. But I think the point of Veers being more like real-world generals as portrayed by his actor is fine, of course.

Seriously, though...just imagine Christopher Lee saying, "Maximum firepower!" Lee's voice sounded a tad different and a tad less deep during the 1970s when one compares it to how it sounded during the 2000s. But it's not a big deal.

 

On second thought I'd think Christopher Lee would have been a great choice for any Rebel general in ESB or ROJ.

Where the Empire has state-of-the-art technology, it would have been cool to see the Alliance counter this with really charismatic characters...

 

And would have been even better with Lee and Cushing once again on opposite sides, this time Lee as a good guy, with Cushing as a villain (as opposed to Lee as Dracula and Cushing as Van Helsing).

 

Actually, I did remember after posting that Veers wasn't quite the same waste of space as most of the cowering Imperial officers in ESB - too small a role for the likes of Christopher Lee, but if expanded, yeah, could have been a good fit.

 

I think Lee would have been fantastic as Jerjerrod -- better than the actor who played him, IMO, who is a bit underwhelming in the role. Especially if the part had been a bit more forceful, Lee could have shone in the role.

 

Can't really blame the actor (Michael Pennington), as the character was heavily changed from a sinister, manipulative direct offsider to Palpatine (with obvious ambitions to replace Vader as Palps' right hand man) to yet another cowering Imperial goon. The deleted scenes on the 2011 Blu-Ray set also reveal a far more complex, conflicted character - a human being very reluctant to simply blow up an entire planet just because he has to follow orders, not to mention that he shows open defiance to Darth Vader himself.

If Christopher Lee had been cast in the role early enough, I believe they would have retained far more of the earlier characterisation.
It's all pure speculation, of course - I don't seem to recall any mentions of Christopher Lee having ever been on the casting radar for the OT in any role.

 

I read an article saying that if the Grand Moffs continued to play a major role after ANH, Christopher Lee could have been a Grand Moff.

 

That sounds more speculative than reflecting anything that was really going on. Besides, 'Moff Jerjerrod' in ROTJ - clearly a mere title given to the commander of a gigantic battle station which might as well be an entire region - doesn't really deserve the title of 'Grand Moff' that was ascribed to the ruthless, respected Tarkin.

Jerjerrod was barely a step above Piett, Ozzel or Needa. At the end of the day, he was just another Imperial goon, in charge of a battle station instead of a Star Destroyer. In the deleted scenes, he demonstrates open defiance towards Vader, similar to the contempt from Admiral Motti in SW/ANH, but by that stage, if Vader wanted to choke him to death, I doubt Palpatine (effectively the commander-in-chief) would have cared two-fifths of sweet @#$%-all about it.
Following that, the most likely scenario would have been that Piett would have simply been promoted again to the commander of DSII - after which he probably would have retired to his quarters to neck an entire jar of sleeping pills, washed down with a bottle of whiskey.

Anyway, point being that the role/position of 'Moff' or 'Grand Moff' was never really followed up in the OT as something particularly worthy, and the eventual role of Moff Jerjerrod in ROTJ didn't help. Leia addresses Tarkin as 'Governor Tarkin' at one point - that could have been something to work upon.

Past ESB, however, the issue of what truly threatened the galaxy became focused upon the powerful Force-sensitives in control of the Empire, i.e. Palps & Vader - eventually the Sith cult - so Admirals, Grand Moffs, Generals and the like were relegated to the sidelines. With the exception of Jerjerrod's deleted scenes in ROTJ, the Imperial officers followed orders to the letter and lived in complete fear of their Emperor and High Executioner.

In which case, was there a role for such a powerful, charismatic actor as the legendary Christopher Lee in such a storyline? I'd say no - unless he played Palpatine, or the unmasked Vader in an expanded role. Even in the PT, the power of his screen presence was wasted in a role that wasn't big enough for him. He should have played Mace Windu - or even Yoda. Get your head around that.

 

I agree. I don't think a minor and/or subordinate role would have befited Christopher Lee. And in the OT, I don't see anything available for him without replacing other equally great actors such as Alec Guinness, Peter Cushing or (even though not as known at the time) Ian McDiarmid.

 

Christopher Lee was actually offered to play Tarkin and was GL's first choice but he refused and his friend Peter Cushing took it instead.

 

Darth_Nub wrote

He should have played Mace Windu - or even Yoda. Get your head around that.

Yes, a good side character would have been nice and Mace Windu could have been perfect.

Now, generations will remember him as a bad guy - and will need to be more specific: PT or LotR or both.

 

We were fine with Dracula and Scaramanga. Why would there be a problem with Dooku and Saruman?

 

Two popular franchise trilogies competing at the same time with Cristopher Lee playing an important bad guy.

 

I think the actor playing Jerjerrod gives a very good performance fitting the role he was given which is basically to be desperate and terrified of Vader and the Emperor. I would agree that if the role had been expanded and made stronger/nastier Lee could have filled it very well, especially if they'd focused on Jerjerrod still being in command of the Death Star after the Emperors Death.

 

Would he have been good? Well of course, he's Christopher Lee! That said I have no issue with him in the Star Wars role he actually wound up getting.

 

Really? I'd certainly believe that, just don't recall reading it anywhere. GL asked Dracula, got turned down, asked Van Helsing/Dr Frankenstein instead. Frankenstein's monster from the Hammer films had, of course, already been cast in a different role.