I just found a wonderful fact that shocked me while reading it: the idea of Grand Moff Tarkin was supposed to be the main villain in the Star Wars franchise.
This is exactly what I found.
Grand Moff Tarkin Almost Become the Emperor of the Empire
We already know how Tarkin’s story ends in A New Hope. He meets his demise aboard the Death Star, destroyed by the Rebellion’s hero, Luke Skywalker. However, there’s more to Grand Moff Tarkin’s character than what we see in the film, especially when we dive into the promotional material created for the original trilogy.
During the campaign to promote the original Star Wars film to theaters, a companion book described Grand Moff Tarkin as someone who aspired to become the Emperor. In Tarkin’s entry, you’ll find this description:
“Grand Moff Tarkin is the Governor of the Imperial Outland regions. His insatiable political ambitions to become Emperor have driven him to use ruthless means to quell the rapidly growing rebellion.”
Looking back at Episode IV, it’s clear that Tarkin often feels like the true villain of the story. For instance, during Leia’s interrogation, it’s Tarkin who threatens to destroy Alderaan unless she reveals the location of the Rebel base—a decision that cements his cold and ruthless nature. Even after Leia gives him false information, Tarkin follows through on his threat and orders the destruction of Alderaan, wiping out an entire planet to make an example of the Empire’s power.
An interesting detail from George Lucas’s Journal of the Whills further emphasizes Tarkin’s dominance. In the Imperial meeting scene, before Tarkin and Darth Vader enter, the generals discuss the dangers of the Rebellion. When Tarkin and Vader walk in, all the generals stand and bow to both of them. Here’s how the Journal of the Whills describes the moment:
“Suddenly all heads turn as Commander Tagge’s speech is cut short and the Grand Moff Tarkin, governor of the Imperial outland regions, enters. He is followed by his powerful ally, The Sith Lord, Darth Vader. All of the generals stand and bow before the thin, evil-looking governor as he takes his place at the head of the table. The Dark Lord stands behind him.”
That even makes me want to watch the scene again with a different point of view. If you revisit the moment where Motti mocks Vader’s belief in the Force, you’ll notice Vader retaliates with a Force choke, but it’s Tarkin who orders him to stop. What’s fascinating is how Vader responds with, “As you wish,” almost as if acknowledging Tarkin’s authority in that moment.
Why Emperor Palpatine Became the Central Villain After A New Hope
I think most Star Wars fans have heard the story about how George Lucas didn’t expect A New Hope to be a hit. In fact, he thought his first Star Wars film was going to flop—until it turned out to be a massive success.
In a 2015 interview with Stephen Colbert at the Tribeca Festival, Lucas admitted, “I didn’t think the film was going to be successful.” Even funnier, while the first Star Wars film was debuting in theaters, Lucas and Steven Spielberg were relaxing in Hawaii. Lucas shared in the same interview, “I don’t read the reviews. I just go, lay on a beach. Steven was there.”
While this doesn’t directly explain why Tarkin was written as the main villain in Star Wars, it does give us insight into Lucas’s mindset at the time. If Lucas genuinely believed his film would flop, it’s unlikely he was thinking about sequels. In fact, there’s another well-known story about Lucas preparing a low-budget sequel called Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, just in case A New Hope failed. This suggests that Episodes V and VI weren’t originally part of his long-term plan.
Another interesting detail is George Lucas’s decision to kill off Obi-Wan Kenobi in A New Hope. It’s widely believed that this wasn’t his original plan, and it forced him to come up with another Jedi Master—Yoda—for Luke’s training in the sequels. What’s fascinating about Yoda is that Lucas himself didn’t know where Yoda came from or what species he belonged to, leaving Yoda’s origins a mystery to this day in the Star Wars universe.
This situation might mirror what happened with Tarkin. Since Tarkin was written to die in the destruction of the Death Star, it’s possible Lucas didn’t initially plan for a larger story involving a central villain across multiple films. If Lucas genuinely thought episode IV might flop, it makes sense that he didn’t feel the need to keep Tarkin alive for future installments. The idea of creating a new evil figure—like the Emperor—could have come later as the success of the series allowed the story to expand.