It’s a terrible miscalculation on the part of director Gareth Edwards an attempt to be respectful that seriously backfires and makes the character a constant distraction rather than a vital piece of the story. Cushing died in 1994, but his estate gave the production approval to use his likeness to bring back the character for the new movie. The film digitally resurrects actor Peter Cushing to play Grand Moff Tarkin. However, with the release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, we see that we’re not completely done with CGI humans, although perhaps we should be. No one could really climb out of the uncanny valley, and the closest anyone could come was digitally de-aging an actor, which still looked unconvincing at times. Instead of trying to create realistic humans, VFX studios turned their attention to using mo-cap for creatures and animals.

While the CGI characters were firmly in the uncanny valley, their mere existence seemed to signal that the coming of digital actors was simply a matter of “when” not “if.” However, as technology advanced and strides were made in the field of motion capture, CGI actors were re-evaluated. When Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was released in 2001, it caused some to speculate that digital actors might be the wave of the future.

“Spoilers” ahead for Rogue One, although I’ll need an explanation on how the inclusion of a supporting character qualifies as a “spoiler”.

Rogue one soundtrack not on amazon