Peter Cushing's Grand Moff Tarkin remains one of the most fascinating characters in the Star Wars mythos, and he only appears in one film.
A lot of that comes down to Cushing's performance, but the main source of fascination with the character relates to the dichotomy between him and Darth Vader. Tarkin is a high-level Imperial Officer, and yet commands a certain respect from Vader, appearing to even outrank the Emperor's apprentice in the chain of command.
Cushing brought the appropriate amount of smarm to the part, and with further appearances in TV spin-offs and even Rogue One, it's clear there's a lot of love for everyone's favourite (only?) Grand Moff.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
