Lucasfilm’s Doug Chiang says Vader’s castle may return in future movies

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Darth Vader's appearance in ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY was definitely a highlight of the film, but the Jedi previously known as Anakin Skywalker really only showed up for two scenes, the first of which took place in his castle on Mustafar. The lava planet served as the setting of Anakin's lengthy duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi in STAR WARS: REVENGE OF THE SITH and it seems that Vader would later return to the planet to construct his formidable fortress.

Although we didn't get much time to properly explore Vader's castle in ROGUE ONE, the folks at Lucasfilm were able to put quite a bit of thought into the location as it may be revisited in the future. Lucasfilm VP and Executive Creative Director Doug Chiang dropped that tidbit when he spoke with Uproxx, where he was asked why Darth Vader chose Mustafar as the location of his castle.

It’s interesting, we did a lot of history exploration. Why did Vader build his castle here? Why does it look the way it does? Why does he even come here? For us, it was really figuring out that Vader built his castle on an existing structure, which was this ancient lava dam. And he built it here for a very specific reason. It was to come back here to meditate, to rejuvenate, to reconnect with himself. And it became a very spiritual place, and it was all centered around his bacta tank. And that’s where the form language all built around there. And we’ve done quite a bit of exploration of what’s on the inside of it as well, and hopefully that’ll be seen in some other film.

Given Kylo Ren's obsession with Darth Vader, as seen in STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS, it's not entirely out of the question that we may see Ren visit areas of importance to the former Dark Lord of the Sith. I'd certainly be down for another trip to the lava planet, especially as it seems to be important to the Skywalker story, but it'd also be fun to explore other areas of Vader's private life which weren't touched upon in the previous movies.

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY will be released on Blu-ray/DVD on April 4, 2017.