Dumbo Actor Says The Film’s Villains Are Like Star Wars’ Darth Vader And Palpatine

Disney's live-action Dumbo is supposed to be a child-friendly reimagining of the classic animated movie, but the film's also going to feature a few tweaks to the original movie's story, including the level of the villainy of its antagonists.

Likening the antagonists to the Star Wars saga's iconic heavy-breathing Darth Vader and the wrinkled Emperor Palpatine, Joseph Gatt promises some pretty intense villains in the live-action Dumbo.

Speaking in an interview with Screen Rant, Gatt talks about Neils Skelling, a new character that was written specifically for Tim Burton's Dumbo movie. Skelling is a hunter who isn't that fond of animals and the character serves as the terrifying arm to Michael Keaton's character, V.A. Vandamere. The literal ringleader of the traveling circus, Vandamere is compared to Star Wars' ringmaster, Emperor Palpatine.

"The way I like to describe Skellig - Neils Skelling - is, if you imagine that Vandevere, Michael Keaton's character, is the Emperor, I'm Darth Vader," Gatt said. "So basically he does all ... he's the more powerful, you know he's in charge of everything, and I just do his bidding and go around being evil. I'm his head of security, and I'm a hunter."

According to Gatt, the character suits him a little bit because he doesn't really like animals all that much.

"I don't like animals very much," the actor added, "so as you can imagine I get along really well with Dumbo and Mrs. Jumbo. And we have a lot of interesting interactions that don't end very well, generally for me."

The comparison to Dark Vader and Palpatine might be a little too much, but then again there was a certain tone of darkness in the trailers for Dumbo.

Dumbo is set to premiere on March 29, 2019.

Read: Disney Has No Plans To Build A Cinematic Universe Like Marvel Or Star Wars