Darth Vader might be in a bacta tank recovering from his wounds, meaning his burned body might show up in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. If rumors are to be believed, the new film will directly connect to the events of Revenge of the Sith and the second season of Star Wars Rebels.
Trailers for Rogue One depicted a mysterious object which many fans thought was a bacta tank, the healing apparatus in the Star Wars galaxy which can repair grave injuries. But who would be in that bacta tank? Galen Erso? The Emperor? A behind-the-scenes photo on StarWarsNews.Net suggests the person recuperating in the bacta tank is none other than Darth Vader, formerly known as Anakin Skywalker!
The behind-the-scenes photo certainly looks like it could be the torso and head of Anakin Skywalker, which, for the most part, is the only organic part left of him after his fateful duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi in Revenge of the Sith. In examining the leaked-on-set photo, it really, really looks like this could be a slightly-aged Hayden Christensen.
But why would Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader be back in a bacta tank, licking his Sith wounds, again? Well, there are few explanations. The first is that it’s a flashback to a point in time in which Vader needed more healing: perhaps after his duel with Ahsoka Tano in Season 2 of Rebels? The second is that maybe Vader’s armor is still unstable and that occasionally he still needs a full recharge. But the third option is that something happens in Rogue One which wounds Vader to the point of needing to fix himself again.
Is this a bacta tank after all?
If all of this is true, and Vader is the one in the bacta tank (and that is a bacta tank) then who is kneeling in front of him? Is it Krennic? Is Krennic so afraid of Vader that he’d kneel in front of him, even if Vader was just a sleeping torso and a head? If any of this turns out to be true, the mythology of Darth Vader and its connections to Rogue One might have just deepened substantially.
