Hello everyone. It's been a while, so I thought I'd do another fan cast. With the renewed interest in
Star Wars, I thought It would be fitting to do a
Star Wars fan cast. It became a subject of which storyline to cast. And then it occured to me: the storyline that helped set the entire
Star Wars saga (key word, "helped," it didn't single-handedly do anything), The Darth Bane trilogy
For those of you who have the video games, Knights of the Old Republic or the MMO The Old Republic, have you ever wondered how the Sith went from a massive empire with multiple accolytes to just two Sith lords during the events of the saga? Well, that's because of Darth Bane.
Even the people who have only seen the movies and know nothing of the Expanded Universe have heard of the Rule of Two:
"Always two there are. No more, no less. A master and an apprentice."
-Yoda
What Yoda says in The Phantom Menace is actually only a summary of the Rule of Two. There is one part that isn't said:
"Two there should be. No more, no less. One to embody the power; the other to crave it."
-Darth Bane
I think if we were to turn any part of the established EU into a movie or movie series, I think the Darth Bane series is the most deserving of getting one...not that that will ever happen. This is just for fun after all.
So...that brings us to the first book, which would be the first film: Darth Bane: Path of Destruction
Summary: Several thousand years before the Battle of Yavin (the assault on the Death Star in Star Wars Episode VI: A New Hope), the Sith Empire is its twilight. After generations of infighting amongst itself, the Sith unified itself under the leadership of the Brotherhood of Darkness.
During this time, a man named Dessel slaves away working in the Cortosis mines on the planet Apatros. One night, Dessel gets in a scuffle resulting in the death of a Republic ensign. With no where to hide, Dessel smuggles himself offworld and joins the ranks of the Sith Army. His skills in battle get him noticed by the Brotherhood of Darkness who take him to the Sith academy on Korriban where he learns the ways of the dark side. Dessel is reborn as Bane.
During his studies, Bane comes to learn even deeper secrets of the dark side. Armed with the ancient knowledge of Darth Revan, Bane sets out on a new mission: destroy the Brotherhood of darkness and re-create the Sith.
Cast
Dessel/ Darth Bane: Since childhood, Dessel had been forced to work in the mines of Apatros since he was a child. He faced many hardships including grueling labor and an abusive father. During a scuffle, he was forced to kill a Republic soldier in self-defense. Now a fugitive, he joined the ranks of the Sith Army. Due to his talents, the Brotherhood of Darkness recruited him for training as a dark lord. Bane proved to be a talented Sith. However, he soon realized he killed his father (whom he previously thought died of a heart attack).
The realization made Bane withdrew from the Dark Side. Shunned by the academy, Bane was forced to train even harder to re-gain his abilities. In his studies, he learned the true nature of the sith-- power is meant for the strong, and the equality of the Brotherhood of Darkness was killing the Sith. During a battle against the Jedi, Bane set out to destroy the sith so that it could be recreated.
Dominic Purcell as Dessel/ Darth Bane
This choice gave me a lot of hell. In terms of acting, Purcell is a mixed bag for me. Loved him in Prison Break. Hated him in Blade: Trinity. Honestly, I mostly chose him because he fit the age and physicality of Bane. Bane is described a massive hulking brute in his 40s. So, while I find Purcell meh, I can't argue that physically, he's perfect.
Lord Kaan: Lord Kaan is the leader of the Brotherhood of Darkness. During the story, he is engaged in warefare against the jedi over control of the planet Ruusan. As the war between the jedi and sith is constantly at a standstill, Kaan slowly loses his mind; going insane and going to increasingly desparate lengths to destroy the jedi. It is these desparate measures that lead Kaan to an ancient Sith spell: the thought bomb-- a Sith magic that would wipe out any force sensitive being. The thought bomb proved so powerful, it wiped out the jedi, Kaan, and the Brotherhood of Darkness as well.
Rufus Sewell as Lord Kaan: Okay look, I'm putting so much time and effort into these character descriptions that I'm just gonna half-ass why I envision the actors in their roles I chose for them. Sewell plays great bad guys. All there is to it.
Lord Kopecz: Kopecz is a twi'lek who serves the Brotherhood of Darkness. It was he who discovered Dessel and brought him into the ranks of the Brotherhood of Darkness. Like the rest of the Brotherhood of Darkness, he perished helping Kaan create the Thought Bomb.
Mikael Persbrandt as Kopecz: I really liked Persbrandt in the Hobbit films. It's a shame he didn't have more screen time. On top of that, he's a big guy. So again, this is a case of physically fitting the role.
Lord Qordis: Qordis is another member of the Brotherhood of Darkness. He serves as the head of the Sith Academy on Korriban. He is described as a Kopecz's rival and will do anything to spite him. For example, when Bane lost his ability to channel the force, Qordis made the academy shun him-- simply because Kopecz was the one who found him. With the rest of the rest of the Brotherhood, Qordis died when the Thought Bomb detonated.
(No pictures of Qordis available)
Ralph Fiennes as Qordis: Ralph Fiennes is really good at playing villains. While he goes really over the top, he's also really threatening and frightening at the same time.
Kas'im: Like Kopecz, Kas'im is a twi'lek Sith lord. He serves with Qordis at the Korriban academy, training the acolytes in the art of combat. He takes a particular shine to Bane. After Bane loses his abilities, and Qordis orders the academy to shun him, Qordis continues to secretly train Bane in the art of combat. Once Bane regains his abilities, Kas'im gives Bane the lightsaber that belonged to his master. Later, when the acolytes from Korriban are called onto the battlefield, Lord Kaan sends Kas'im to kill Bane, who he deems is a threat to the Brotherhood of Darkness. The two engage in a fierce duel before Bane ultimately kills his master.
Javier Bardem as Kas'im: To be perfectly honest, I have no idea what compelled me to make this choice. Bardem is a phenomenal actor, but I'm not really sure if he'd get into all that makeup. Regardless, he'd be awesome.
Sirak: Sirak is a Zabrak and the top student at the Korriban academy. Because of his status, no one is willing to challenge him-- not even Bane. After Bane loses his connection to the force, Sirak savagely beats him. Later, Bane seeks revenge. After Sirak recovers, he challanges Bane again, only to be defeated and decapitated.
(NOTE: The picture is NOT of Sirak. It's of Savage Opress from the Clone Wars series. There are no pictures of Sirak. But Opress serves as the best example of what he looks like)
Liam McIntyre as Sirak: Another great actor, I chose McIntyre because he's just so imposing and threatening.
Githany: A former jedi, Githany abandoned the jedi order and joined the Brotherhood of Darkness. After her treachery, she joined the students and the academy on Korriban. She is described as incredibly beautiful and curvaceous. She is also intelligent, manipulative and power-hungry. She will use her body and wiles to get what she wants. At the academy, she secretly trains Bane to re-awaken his connection to the force, all the while forming a close attatchment to him. Later, Kaan sends her to kill Bane. She almost succeeds, poisoning her lips and kissing him three times, though he survives. At the end, she realizes Kaan has gone insane and tries to flee, but she is still vaporized by the Thought Bomb.
NOTE: Like Darth Maul (the double-bladed lightsaber), Count Dooku (the curved hilt lightsaber), and Darth Vader (the dual-phase lightsaber-- you can focus the power to change the length of the blade), Githany uses another unique variant of the lightsaber-- the lightwhip.
Megan Boone as Githany: Long story short, I love her on The Blacklist, and I think she is capable of going much much darker in her roles. She's also incredibly hot.
General Hoth: Hoth is a jedi general, and the arch-nemesis of Lord Kaan. During the war, he creates his own jedi army, the Army of Light to battle the Brotherhood of Darkness. Like Kaan, the stalemate the two forces are in slowly drives Hoth insane. He is one of the victims of the Thought Bomb.
Stephen Lang as General Hoth: Does this really need an explanation?
Caleb: Caleb is a healer of incredibly power. After Bane was poisoned by Githany, he sought out Caleb to heal him. Caleb refused until Bane threatened his daughter. After he was healed, Bane decided to spare Caleb, finding him useful.
Alfred Molina as Caleb: This seemed like a good choice. Molina is so versatile an actor, I've seen him play literally any role.
Rain: A young girl. General Hoth became so desperate to take Ruusan that he began called for mere younglings to join the battle. Rain was one such youngling. During the transport's descent into Ruusan, it was caught in a stomr (created by a Sith spell), and forced to crash land. Rain was the only survivor. When she was discovered by jedi scouts, Rain killed them, driven by greif and anger. Later, she was discovered by Bane who made her his apprentice: Darth Zannah
Morgan Lily as Rain/ Darth Zannah: I have to thank user Niklander for helping me find Lily. I'm going off his suggestion for this.
Book/Film 2: Darth Bane: Rule of Two
The second installment in the Darth Bane trilogy picks up immediately where Path of Destruction left off, the planet Ruusan is a wasteland after the detonation of the Thought Bomb. The Brotherhood of Darkness, and the entire Sith Empire with it has been destroyed. The jedi have suffered a devastating loss. And Darth Bane has just taken Darth Zannah as his new apprentice. Bane gives Zannah her first test: find her way off the planet Ruusan and meet him on Onderon. While Zannah does that, Bane himself heads to Onderon on a mission of his own: create a Sith Holocron so that he can pass down his teachings.
After the two reunite, the story jumps 10 years into the future. A now adult Zannah has become a powerful sith Sorceress, and the Sith-- living under Bane's Rule of Two doctrine-- are living in secrecy, completely undected by the jedi. Two jedi who evacuated Ruusan before the Thought Bomb detonated-- jedi master Valenthyne Farfalla, and Hoth's padawan Johun Othone-- now serve as bodyguards to the chancellor of the Republic. Bane is still searching for the secret to creating a holocron at this time, and has Zannah go undercover to gain information (for the sake of the summary, there is actually a lot of information I am cutting out of that). With his new information in hand, Bane and Zannah are discovered and confronted by the jedi.
Cast:
Returning Cast:
Dominic Purcell as Darth Bane
Morgan Lily as Rain/ Darth Zannah
*Rufus Sewell as Lord Kaan (appears as a hallucination)
*Ralph Fiennes as Qordis (appears as a hallucination)
Alfred Molina as Caleb
Darth Zannah: Ten years later, Darth Zannah has become a beautiful young woman and a powerful Sith sorceress. Like Githany, she uses her body to get what she wants and seduces her targets.
Karen Gillan as Darth Zannah: Gillan has displayed a great acting range thus far in her career. I have no doubt she could pull of a role like this.
Darovit: Darovit is Zannah's cousin and was on Ruusan when the Thought Bomb detonated. Although he didn't know why, he described the detonation (it is later revealed that the Thought Bomb only destroys force sensitives; Darovit's connection to the force was so weak that the bomb had no effect on him). After finding Zannah, Darovit tried to rescue her from Bane, only for Zannah to shatter his hand and flee. Years later, Darovit is a recluse still living on Ruusan as a healer. He tries to tell the jedi that the Sith are still alive. After meeting Zannah again, his cousin uses her force abilities to warp his mind and drive him insane. When the jedi arrive, he attacks them and is quickly killed; the jedi believing his was the Sith Lord.
(No pictures of Darovit available)
Evan Peters as Darovit: Peters is a simply amazing actor. Also, he looks enough like Gillan to be related to her.
Valenthyne Farfalla: Valenthyne Farfalla was a jedi master a member of Hoth's army of light. Although he was introduced in the Path of Destruction, his role was a minor one. He plays a much bigger role in Rule of Two. After surviving the Thought Bomb-- by escaping the planet-- Farfalla becomes a bodyguard to the Chancellor of the Republic. 10 years later, after learning that the Sith are still alive, he is part of a strike force sent to take down Bane and Zannah. Like the other jedi, he's killed in the duel between.
Matthew Goode as Valenthyne Farfalla
Johun Othone: Johun Othone was General Hoth's Padawan. He managed to escape Ruusan before the Thought Bomb detonated. Like Farfalla, he became bodyguard to the Chancellor. Also like Farfalla, he was one of the five jedi sent to apprehend Bane and Zannah. He was killed during the duel when Zannah impaled him with her lightsaber.
Dean O'Gorman as Johun Othone
That brings us to the final entry in the Darth Bane series. Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil
Dynasty of Evil is set 10 years after Rule of Two. Bane still rules as Dark Lord of the Sith. However, his body is starting to suffer. Various injuries from over the years are taking their toll on Bane's body and his increased use of the Dark Side has caused his body to start to degrade. He is getting worried because Zannah has not yet challenged him for the mantle of Dark Lord. In desperation, he begins learning the Sith spell of essence transfer (transferring your spirit into another body so that you can live on) in the event that Zannah fails him, and he has to start all over again. He is unaware that Zannah is worried as well; she feels she must have an apprentice before she can challenge Bane.
Meanwhile, Serra, Caleb's daughter (whom Bane threatened if Caleb refused to heal him) has hired a mercenary to track down and capture Bane so that she can extract her revenge on him for her father's death (I skipped over it, but it happened in Rule of Two). Many lives are destroyed as Darth Bane and Darth Zannah ready for their final duel... against each other.
Returning Cast
Dominic Purcell as Darth Bane
Karen Gillan as Darth Zannah
(Makeup would be used to show the characters' age as well as Bane's degredation over the years)
New cast:
Serra: Serra was Caleb's daughter from Path of Destruction. During Rule of Two, Caleb sent his daughter away to prevent Bane from using her as leverage again. While she's been away, she'd married a prince, acquiring wealth and power. In the beginning of the story, she is already widowed and having nightmares of Bane from her childhood. After learning her father has died, she decides to seek Revenge on Bane. She hires a bounty hunter who captures and imprisons him. Serra is killed by Darth Zannah who is searching for Bane to challenge him.
(No images of Serra available)
Chloe Bennett as Serra
Lucia: Lucia was a soldier in Bane's battalion during his final days as Dessel. Like Farfalla, she only plays a small role in Path of Destruction, playing a much larger role in Dynasty of Evil. She now serves as Serra's bodyguard and friend. With Serra, Lucia is killed by Zannah.
Lena Headey as Lucia
Set Harth: Set Harth was a dark jedi who acquired various Sith artifacts over the years. His collection eventually put him into confrontation with Darth Bane and Darth Zannah. Harth vowed to serve as Zannah's apprentice, however he fled during her duel with Darth Bane.
Travis Fimmel as Set Harth
The Huntress/ Darth Cognus: An unnamed Iktotchi assassin known only as The Huntress. She was hired to track down and capture Bane for Serra. However, she felt as if her destiny would be brought about by Darth Bane. As she helped him escape Serra's prison, he dubbed her Darth Cognus. When Zannah arrived to challenge her master, Cognus stepped down. Realzing they were equal, Cognus declared she would serve the victor...which ended up being Zannah.
Eliza Dushku as the Huntress/ Darth Cognus: Like Bardem, I'm not sure if Dushku was put on such heavy makeup and prosthetics. But she is a great actress who can do badass really well.
So what do you think? Tell me in the comments section. I love your feedback.