Via Starwars.com:

THE ACCLAIMED WRITER DISCUSSES ENDING A MODERN CLASSIC AND MUCH MORE.

In the final installment of StarWars.com’s Darth Vader wrap-up interview with writer Kieron Gillen, we discuss the inspiration for Doctor Aphra, Vader and Palpatine’s tense dynamic, and the comic becoming one with the Force at the right time. (In case you missed it, check out part one of the interview here.)

StarWars.com: So, Darth Vader, the series, has brought a number of characters into the Star Wars universe that have left an unforgettable mark. Perhaps no character has had as much of an impact as Dr. Aphra. Although I’m sure Triple-Zero would probably disagree with that.

Kieron Gillen: [Laughs]

StarWars.com: So, what was the inspiration for Aphra, and what does she mean to you as a character? She’s popular; I mean, people love her.

Kieron Gillen: She’s great. I mean, this is sort of tricky because actually, I’m not going to say whether she survives or not. It’s one of those things where, she’s kind of the heart of the book, and like, I should say that Vader isn’t going to die.

You know, that’s the thing: what the tension of the book is, is anyone around Vader going to survive? And by having a character kind of likable, that’s kind of the thing. The emotional backbone for a lot of the book is, is Vader gonna kill Aphra? Because Aphra knows Vader is going to kill her. And Vader knows that Aphra knows he’s going to kill her. [Laughs] So you get all of the politics back and forth.

StarWars.com: And there’s pathos because of that.

Kieron Gillen: Oh yeah, absolutely. And it’s the final scene; the final confrontation between Vader and Aphra in issue #25 is one of my highlights of the run. You know, it’s kind of all built towards this final scene, and I think it’s quite powerful.

[As far as] where did the idea come from? I was trying to make the idea of how to make something feel like Star Wars. And at least part of it was, I wanted to… Okay, I’m going to take Vader. Vader’s basically our Luke. I need to surround him with a cast, so I kind of end up almost mirroring the main Star Wars cast. Aphra ends up taking sort of [a] Han-ish position. And obviously, the droids are the droids, and Black Krrsantan is Chewbacca. And, you know, Trios is Leia.

But at the same time, I was also thinking, they can’t just be mirrors. They’ve got to be archetypes. And the thing about Star Wars is, the characters better be broad and direct. Leia is a certain princess archetype, and Luke is a farm boy turned Jedi Knight. These are kind of quite the ideas you get, you know, and Han most of all. He’s the smuggler, scoundrel guy. And soon, you kind of hit a certain kind of character type, and make them feel big enough.

We met Lucasfilm for the first time. They were showing us around the building, and I just passed one of the Indiana Jones bits. I found myself thinking, “You know, Indiana Jones would be an archetype who’d work. It’s a very old universe. It’s got the old stuff there.” You know, gender switched Indiana Jones, but evil, with all that kind of charm of Indiana Jones, but completely different, ethical means. That could work. And also, there’s kind of a fun-ness to doing another character inspired by another Lucas property.

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Via Starwars.com:

IN ADVANCE OF NEXT WEEK’S SERIES FINALE ISSUE, STARWARS.COM TALKS TO WRITER KIERON GILLEN ABOUT MARVEL’S SAGA-CHANGING COMIC.

Darth Vader is such an icon, not just for film, but for culture in general. With that kind of legacy comes an incredible amount of expectation, and Marvel’s Darth Vader ongoing series continually delivered. The first issue was published in February of 2015, and the title has since left an indelible mark on the Star Wars saga. With the final installment, issue #25, hitting next Wednesday, October 12, StarWars.com spoke with Darth Vader writer Kieron Gillen about the legacy of Vader, making him a starring character, and how he got us to root for a Sith Lord.

StarWars.com: Describe your relationship with the character of Darth Vader before you learned you were going to write an ongoing series.

Kieron Gillen: I mean, I always say this when I talk about Darth Vader — the very first movie I ever saw in the cinema was [The] Empire [Strikes Back]. You know, that was the first movie I remember being taken to the cinema to see. Darth Vader was literally the entry point of me into fantasy and science fiction. It’s my entry into public life and geek culture. It’s my kind of formative view into what evil looks like.

So, for me and Jason [Aaron], and I’m sure a lot of Star Wars writers, are on an age where Star Wars was absolutely formulate. So that’s where I shoot with Darth Vader there. He’s like one of the iconic pop cultural villains of the 20th century.

StarWars.com: Oh, absolutely. And I think if you grew up in a certain generation (I was born in the early ’70s), he’s just kind of imprinted in your mind.

Kieron Gillen: Oh yeah, absolutely. It’s like I said, you know, I was born in ’75, so he’s just there, looming, magnificent. I’ve always said, it’s like it’s very weird of me doing Vader, ’cause of course, it’s between New Hope and Empire, so as I’m basically writing the prequels to my own entry into pop culture. So it’s like a weirdly cyclical thing, and it’s very primal.

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