Network's Peter Finch and The Dark Knight's Heath Ledger famously won posthumous Oscars for emotionally riveting performances. Now, given a key digitally aided performance in Rogue One, we're on the doorstep of an era when major awards could go to actors who died long before their scenes were even conceived, let alone shot.
That is because the face of Peter Cushing, the imposing British actor who died in 1994, lends an especially memorable presence to Rogue One by helping to "reprise" his Star Wars character, Grand Moff Tarkin, the Imperial governor who practically rules by force of glare, intonation and cheekbone.
In the Star Wars timeline, Rogue One is an immediate prequel to the original 1977 film, so there is requisite connective tissue visually as well as narratively, right down to the appearances of some of the franchise's most iconic characters.
And though George Lucas may not have fully foreseen this aspect four decades ago, one benefit of populating your universe with so many masks, droids and creature make-up is the ease with which their countenances can be recreated for any future iterations. In terms of accessibility, their looks are immortal.
