60 Fun Facts About Darth Vader

Who voiced Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy?

James Earl Jones asked to go uncredited on the first two films, reasoning that a dubbed voice was 'just special effects'.

Which bodybuilder and actor physically played Vader in the original trilogy?

David Prowse said the role he was proudest of was not Vader but the Green Cross Code Man, a road-safety superhero who taught British children to cross the street.

Which famous filmmaker did George Lucas consider for Vader's voice before the eventual actor?

Orson Welles was Lucas's first thought for the voice, but he reportedly feared the Citizen Kane director would be too recognisable to audiences.

Vader's mechanical breathing was created by sound designer Ben Burtt using recordings of what?

Scuba gear. Burtt breathed through a diving regulator and recorded himself, and that steady rhythm became Vader's mechanical rasp.

Concept artist Ralph McQuarrie created Vader's mask by combining a full-face breathing mask with what?

A samurai helmet. McQuarrie added the breathing mask because the script had Vader crossing through space between two ships.

Which co-star revealed in 1983 that fencer Bob Anderson had fought Vader's lightsaber duels?

Mark Hamill, who had duelled him on set, said Anderson 'deserves some recognition' and told Lucas the secret was no longer fair.

Which British accent did the man in Vader's suit have, leading George Lucas to dub the villain's lines?

West Country. The Bristol-born bodybuilder spoke every line on set and said he never knew another actor would be dubbed over him.

What decoy line is said to have replaced Vader's big reveal on the Empire Strikes Back set?

"Obi-Wan killed your father" was printed on a fake script page, the filmmakers say, and the real line was dubbed in later. The man in the suit later denied ever speaking the decoy.

Which actor plays the unmasked Anakin in Return of the Jedi?

Sebastian Shaw's contract barred him from telling even his family about the part, and on the 2004 DVD his ghost in the final scene was swapped for the prequels' younger Anakin.

Who played nine-year-old Anakin in The Phantom Menace?

Jake Lloyd won the part because, producer Rick McCallum said, he was 'smart, mischievous' and loved 'anything mechanical, just like Anakin'.

Which star met George Lucas about playing teenage Anakin but turned the part down?

Leonardo DiCaprio said he wasn't ready to 'take that dive', and in the year Attack of the Clones came out he starred in Catch Me If You Can and Gangs of New York instead.

What was Anakin and Luke's surname in early scripts, before Skywalker replaced it?

Starkiller stayed in the script into filming, when Lucas swapped it for Skywalker. The Force Awakens brought the name back for its planet-sized weapon.

In a 2005 interview, George Lucas said 'Darth Vader' was a modified version of which phrase?

Dark Father. Yet Lucas has told the name's origin other ways, and the sequel's first draft still made Luke's father a separate character from Vader.

What is Darth Vader called in French-language Star Wars media?

'Darth' became 'Dark' for other French Sith Lords too. Italian audiences knew him as Dart Fener until The Force Awakens.

In which country is Darth Vader known as Svarthöfði, or 'black-head'?

Iceland. Svarthöfði was already an Old Norse name: it was carved on a Viking-age runestone, and an Eddic poem makes a Svarthöfði the forefather of the workers of charms.

On the AFI's list of 50 greatest screen villains, Vader ranked third behind Norman Bates and whom?

Hannibal Lecter topped the 2003 list, and the same poll put Vader's old master on the other side: Obi-Wan Kenobi ranked among its 50 greatest heroes.

Costume designer John Mollo's Vader outfit used a helmet borrowed from which country's military?

Germany. Mollo built the first Vader costume from a London costumier's stock: a German army helmet, a gas mask, a motorcycle suit and clerical robes.

On which planet does Anakin grow up as a slave?

Tatooine. The future Darth Vader builds the fussy droid C-3PO there as a boy, then wins his freedom in a podrace wager.

Which Jedi Master discovers Anakin and becomes convinced he is the 'Chosen One'?

Qui-Gon Jinn asks the Jedi Council to let him train the boy and is refused, so with his dying breath he hands the task to Obi-Wan.

Whom does Anakin find dying in a Tusken Raider camp in Attack of the Clones?

His mother, Shmi, dies in his arms, and in his grief and rage he slaughters the entire Tusken tribe.

Which villain severs Anakin's arm in the duel on Geonosis?

Count Dooku beats both Jedi and takes Anakin's arm. Three years later Anakin wins the rematch and beheads him.

Whose hand does Anakin cut off, letting Sidious kill him, just before he joins the Sith?

Mace Windu had Sidious subdued when Anakin, who had reported the Chancellor's treachery himself, cut off his hand and changed sides.

On which volcanic planet does Obi-Wan defeat Anakin and leave him burning beside a lava flow?

Mustafar. The burns he suffers on its lava bank are why Sidious has him sealed in the black armour that keeps him alive.

In Revenge of the Sith, Anakin pledges himself to the Sith mainly in the hope of doing what?

Saving Padmé's life. Haunted by visions of her dying in childbirth, he believes only the dark side can prevent it, yet she dies soon after he turns.

What lie does the Emperor tell the newly armoured Vader that makes him scream?

That his own strangling killed Padmé is the lie: she was alive when he left her, and died only after giving birth to the twins.

In the 1977 film, Vader and which Imperial officer must recover the stolen Death Star plans?

Grand Moff Tarkin refuses to evacuate the Death Star during the Rebel attack and dies aboard it, while Vader is knocked clear in his fighter and survives.

Which planet does the Death Star destroy after Vader's prisoner, Princess Leia, names a false Rebel base?

Alderaan. Leia offers up an abandoned base on Dantooine to save her home world, and the station's commander destroys Alderaan anyway.

On Cloud City, whom does Vader freeze in carbonite and hand over to Boba Fett?

Han Solo was the test subject: Vader wanted proof that a human could survive carbon-freezing before he used it to capture Luke.

How does Vader finally kill the Emperor in Return of the Jedi?

Vader throws him down a reactor shaft to save Luke, and the Emperor's Force lightning mortally wounds him as he does it.

Where does Luke burn his father's body on a funeral pyre?

Endor. Luke carries the body off the doomed Death Star himself, and as the Rebels celebrate he sees Anakin's spirit standing with Obi-Wan and Yoda.

In The Force Awakens, which character keeps Vader's burned helmet and speaks to it as if praying?

Kylo Ren is Vader's grandson, and what he asks the helmet for is strength against the pull of the light, vowing to finish what his grandfather started.

In Rogue One, whom does Vader summon to his castle?

Orson Krennic arrives hoping for an audience with the Emperor. Vader refuses, then Force-chokes him as a warning.

What is the title of Darth Vader's musical theme?

The Imperial March. Vader stalked through the 1977 film without it: John Williams wrote the theme for the sequel three years later.

Which nickname does Ahsoka Tano use for Anakin in The Clone Wars?

Skyguy is a play on his surname, and he answers in kind: she becomes 'Snips', for her snippy attitude.

In The Clone Wars finale, what does Vader find at the crash site that makes him assume Ahsoka died?

One of her lightsabers. Ahsoka had discarded it there after burying her fallen clone troopers, and it convinces Vader that she died in the crash.

In Star Wars Rebels, Vader leads a squad of Force-sensitive Imperial hunters called what?

Inquisitors hunt the Jedi who survived the purge. When their leader dies failing to crush one Rebel cell on Lothal, Vader arrives to deal with it himself.

In the series Obi-Wan Kenobi, what has Obi-Wan long believed Anakin to be?

Dead, Obi-Wan thought, until his pursuer Reva tells him the truth: his old apprentice survived and became Darth Vader.

Which company digitally recreated the retired original actor's voice as Vader for Obi-Wan Kenobi?

Respeecher rebuilt the voice from the actor's old recordings with his blessing: he signed over the rights to it for future Star Wars productions.

In Ahsoka (2023), Anakin appears to his former apprentice in what ethereal realm outside time and space?

The World Between Worlds. There Anakin's spirit says he has come to finish her training, then ignites his lightsaber and attacks: her lesson is to live or die.

Vader Immortal, the three-episode virtual reality series, launched in May 2019 alongside which headset?

Oculus Quest. The first episode arrived with the headset's launch and casts the player as a smuggler taken captive by Vader, who needs them to find an ancient artifact.

At the end of Jedi: Fallen Order, Vader kills which of his own Jedi hunters for failing to secure a Holocron?

The Second Sister pays for her failure the moment Vader arrives. He then turns on the young Jedi Cal Kestis, who only just escapes.

Which news magazine put Reagan in Vader's helmet on a 1984 cover about his missile-defence plan?

Der Spiegel. Its cover line asked 'Weapons for the war of the stars?', borrowing the nickname critics had given Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative.

George Lucas said Dick Cheney was really more like which Star Wars character than Vader?

Palpatine. 'Cheney is the emperor,' Lucas told columnist Maureen Dowd, casting him as the true evil 'who pulls all the strings'.

Which country's Internet Party has fielded multiple election candidates under the name Darth Vader?

Ukraine. Election officials refused one Darth Vader's 2014 run for president, but a Darth Vader did stand for mayor of Kyiv and of Odesa that year.

French psychiatrist Eric Bui has used Anakin as a teaching example for which condition?

Borderline personality disorder. Bui's team wrote that the diagnosis might help explain the films' pull on teenagers, and could teach medical students its symptoms.

Which character, introduced in Marvel's 2015 Darth Vader comic, went on to headline her own series?

Doctor Aphra worked for Vader in secret until he threw her out of an airlock; she survived, having planned for her own rescue.

In the 1978 novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye, what happens to Vader in his first duel with Luke?

He loses an arm to Luke and falls into a pit. The novel was written as the basis for a low-budget sequel in case Star Wars did not earn enough to pay for a bigger one.

In 1981 the actor Brock Peters voiced Vader in an adaptation for which medium?

Radio. George Lucas sold the rights to his old university's station for a dollar, and the thirteen-part serial made room for added scenes of Vader interrogating Leia.

Which Legends video game features Galen Marek as Vader's secret apprentice?

The Force Unleashed. Vader trains his secret apprentice to hunt the Jedi who survived the purge, and plans to use him to overthrow the Emperor.

Which other Star Wars role was the man in Vader's suit offered before he chose the villain?

Chewbacca. He picked Vader instead because, he said, 'you always remember the bad guys'.

'Luke, I am your father' is a famous misquote: which word really begins Vader's line?

No. The line is 'No, I am your father', Vader's answer when Luke accuses him of killing his father.

Which actor played the grown-up Anakin in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith?

Hayden Christensen returned to the role in 2022, playing both Anakin in flashbacks and the armoured Vader in the series Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Which 1978 TV broadcast gave Vader a scene of reused film footage with new dialogue dubbed in?

The Star Wars Holiday Special. It aired only once on American television, has never been officially released in full, and survives in fans' bootleg recordings.

In the 1977 film, what does Vader say he finds 'disturbing' as he chokes a mocking officer?

His lack of faith. Admiral Motti had just sneered at Vader's 'sad devotion to that ancient religion', and Vader answers by choking him with the Force.

What novelty British election candidate, first seen in the 1984 parody Hyperspace, resembles Vader?

Lord Buckethead became a viral star standing beside Theresa May at her 2017 count; when the film's American creator reclaimed the character, comedian Jon Harvey returned as Count Binface.

George Lucas said which US president would be a better stand-in for Vader than Dick Cheney?

George W. Bush was Lucas's pick in 2009: he told columnist Maureen Dowd that Vader is really "a kid from the desert planet near Crawford", the Texas town beside Bush's ranch.

In a 2026 animated Star Wars series, Vader arrives on the planet Janix and duels which old foe of Obi-Wan Kenobi?

Maul survives the meeting: in the finale of Maul – Shadow Lord he shoves a Jedi Master into Vader's path, brings a roof down on the Sith Lord and flees the planet.

In Jedi: Survivor, Vader slays which Jedi after a prolonged duel on Jedha?

Cere Junda makes her last stand guarding the hidden Jedi archive on Jedha, and the game hands the player control of her, not its hero, for the duel with Vader.

What new feature came with Vader's return to Fortnite in May 2025?

Spoken AI conversations with Vader, in a voice modelled on the original actor's, drew a union complaint within days: SAG-AFTRA said Epic had replaced human performers without bargaining.

Which 2018 novel pairs Vader with a Chiss grand admiral on a mission after Rebels' third season?

Thrawn: Alliances sends the pair to Batuu to trace a disturbance in the Force, showing readers the planet a year before Disney opened it as its Galaxy's Edge theme-park lands.