“Scary teddy bears,” said Emperor Palpatine himself, Ian McDiarmid. “The End of Palpatine.” The iconic actor behind star Wars’ The Greatest Villain was one of four actors to appear on the 40th anniversary panel Return of the Jedi in Star Wars Celebration 2023. McDiarmid was joined by Lando Calrissian’s Billy Dee Williams, Wicket the Ewok’s Warwick Davis and C-3PO’s Anthony Daniels. It was managed by Fennec Shand herself, Ming Na Wen.
Even though the cast was only on stage for half of the panel (the rest were recent Star Wars writers Rob Bredow, Neil Scanlan, and Doug Chiang talking about how the Jedi affected them), they gave plenty of excellent insight and story. FOr, for example, Daniels talks about how the first scene shot for the movie was on a stage in the UK, and the heroes were supposed to be aboard the Millennium Falcon in the desert. However, the sand was very messy on the stage, shooting was very difficult, and even when they got the shots in, they were cut.
Warwick Davis shared that part of the reason Wicket stands out among the Ewoks is that most of the actors who played them were much older. He was 11 at the time, so he was always eager to go and had a lot of extra energy. Additionally, the fact that he was able to slip his tongue through the suit made the character more enduring.
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McDiarmid joked how he never thought he’d come back from the dead, noting that celestial rise, Especially after the way they portrayed his character’s death scenes. Since he needed to fall down the Death Star pole, the actor would wear a pull strap at high speed, which could then be inverted in post-production. The biggest problem with it, he said, was that actor David Prowse, who played Darth Vader, had trouble holding his feet, which made the draw seem believable.
He also stated that it wasn’t quite decided what Paplatine’s voice would be. But once he saw what it looked like, he got it. McDiarmid said that if a character looks disgusting, he should look disgusting. He described the result as “a voice to vomit,which gradually diminished from there.
As for Billy Dee Williams, he wasn’t able to share much as the actor is clearly not feeling well, but still laughed when asked about his experiences hanging upside down on Sarlaac Pit: “It was very uncomfortable.”
Also, it was announcedt return of the jedi It will return to select theaters on April 28. This is a poster to celebrate the occasion by Matt Ferguson.
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