Before Darth Vader stepped through the smoke in Star Wars, George Lucas gave him a very different first scene. It was May 1974, and the screenplay was still called The Star Wars. The name Darth Vader was already there, but reading his scenes in order gives you a strange feeling. You keep recognizing him in places where he hasn’t even walked into the room.
The Original Darth Vader Was an Imperial General
The first time Darth Vader appears in the May 1974 rough draft, an Imperial governor named Hoedaack slaps him on the back. The governor is celebrating, and Vader almost smiles. Lucas introduces him as “a tall, grim-looking general.” His entrance is so ordinary that the detail Lucas gives us about his face is a slight movement of his mouth.
The Empire wants to conquer a planet called Aquilae, and Vader is one of the officers making that happen. There’s a problem, though. The man in charge of Aquilae’s defense is a Jedi. Vader helps the Empire take the planet, but hunting down that Jedi falls to someone else.
The general still gets a scene worthy of a villain. Late in the draft, Princess Leia and a young Jedi named Annikin Starkiller are among the fugitives trapped in a garbage chamber aboard an Imperial fortress. Vader’s voice comes over the intercom. The fortress is under attack, so he tells them he’s moving up their execution. The intercom cuts out, and one of the walls starts moving toward them.
Someone Else Got to Be the Empire’s Jedi Hunter
In the movies, Darth Vader hunts Jedi for the Empire. In the 1974 draft, that was Prince Valorum’s job. Valorum was a Sith Knight, and the Jedi he came to hunt was Luke Skywalker. Here, Luke is an older, experienced general leading the defense of Aquilae. When Valorum walks into Vader’s office in a black-and-chrome uniform, Vader tells him he’s long wanted to meet a Sith Knight and offers him the help of his entire command.
The closest thing to Vader’s movie look belongs to yet another character. Early in the draft, an unnamed Sith warrior in black robes and a face mask ambushes Annikin and kills his younger brother. Annikin’s father kills the attacker on the spot. By the time Valorum walks into Vader’s office, that masked warrior is already dead.
Valorum gets a different moment you might recognize from the movies. The Empire captures Annikin when he tries to rescue Leia, and Valorum is put in charge of escorting him to the ship that will take him away for execution. As the ship docks, Valorum frees Annikin, tosses him a sword, and fights alongside him. He even helps free Leia. When Vader turns on the garbage crusher, the Sith Knight is inside with the people he was supposed to help the Empire kill.
The Father With a Mechanical Body Was a Jedi
The man who saves Annikin from the masked attacker is his father, Kane Starkiller. He’s a Jedi who’s spent years on the run from the Empire. After losing his younger son, he takes Annikin to Aquilae and asks his old friend Luke Skywalker for help. Kane says he can’t keep going. Luke remembers him as one of the greatest warriors in the galaxy and has a hard time believing him.
Then Kane slams his left forearm against the desk. It breaks open, spilling wires and electronic parts. He opens his tunic to reveal more machinery in his chest. “There is nothing left but my head and right arm,” Kane tells Luke. He knows he’s dying, and he wants Luke to train Annikin after he’s gone.
Later, the heroes need two power units to smuggle Leia’s younger brothers to safety, and they only have one. Kane reaches into his chest and pulls out his own power unit. His breathing grows labored, and he uses his last moments to tell Annikin to trust his judgment and listen to his new teacher. Annikin carries his father’s body out of the room.
Annikin Was the Son, and Luke Was His Teacher
That name really is Annikin, with two n’s in the middle. Annikin Starkiller is eighteen when the story opens. He’s the young hero who loses family, learns from an older Jedi, and risks his life to rescue Leia. The role will sound familiar to anyone who remembers what Luke does in A New Hope.
That makes the names especially strange if you go back and watch the reveal in The Empire Strikes Back. In that scene, Luke Skywalker is the young Jedi learning the truth about his father. Anakin Skywalker is the father behind the mask. In the rough draft, the boy with the familiar-sounding name already knows who his father is. What he learns, standing beside Luke, is how little of his father’s body is still human.
What Changed When Vader Became Luke’s Father
You can see the rough draft’s cast in the trailer and preview pages for Dark Horse’s 2013 comic adaptation. The biggest difference comes into focus if you put the two endings side by side.
In the rough draft, Kane gives his life to save two children, and Valorum later turns on the Empire to help save Kane’s son. General Vader spends the fortress escape trying to kill them. In Return of the Jedi, the Sith Lord who turns on the Emperor is also the father who gives his life. When Luke takes off Vader’s mask, he finally gets to look his father in the eye. In 1974, Lucas had already written a scene where you could see Darth Vader’s face. All it told you was that he almost smiled.