Although, killing off Tarkin in a narration would feel like a cop-out. I might wanna have Tarkin killed in this attack, because him not being in Chapters 2-4 is a little problematic, but maybe I can just pepper Tarkin scenes in 2 & 4.
If you want to keep Tarkin alive, perhaps you could use shots from Rogue One of Tarkin watching the completion of the Death Star. Maybe the laser canon was blown up in the first attack and they needed a new one. But if you went down that route I’d just stick to the window reflection of Tarkin, no in-your-face CG. You could even cut Tarkin from those shots and still use them. Just an idea.