A bunch of intel about "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" has been revealed this week, and the details just keep on coming: Entertainment Weekly reports that the original voice of Darth Vader, James Earl Jones, will reprise his role for the spinoff flick.

EW spoke with director Gareth Edwards and producer and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy about the character's reappearance on the big screen, and they teased that the character is just as imposing as ever, if a bit more of an enigma at this point in the "Star Wars" chronology (about 19 years after the events of "Episode III: Revenge of the Sith," to be exact).

"He will be in the movie sparingly," Kennedy told the magazine. "But at a key, strategic moment, he's going to loom large."

Much of Vader's presence in the flick will be peripheral, according to filmmakers, who tell EW that Vader is more of a whispered-about legend than a known entity at this point. (And that's just the Empire -- members of the Rebellion "are barely familiar with" him, according to the magazine.)

"Within the Empire, there is the culture of knowing of the existence of Darth Vader," Edwards explained to EW. "There's definitely an underlying feeling that there is a power – a dark power – available to the Empire and that if you overstep your mark, you will suffer the consequences."

Vader is set to butt heads in a major way with "Rogue One"'s main antagonist, Director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), especially since Vader has proven he's beholden to no one's authority, outside of the Emperor himself. We can't wait to see the notorious villain (and hear Jones's performance) back in action.

"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" is due in theaters on December 16.

[via: Entertainment Weekly]

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