Fans may automatically think of Anakin and Vader as the same person. However, there was a time when they were supposed to be different people. If we refer back to the interval between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back, we can determine that they were separate characters.
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Anakin and Vader as Different Persons
As this article retells, George Lucas claimed that he planned for Anakin and Vader to be the same person from the beginning of the original trilogy. However, “there’s precious little evidence to support this claim.” As many fans know, “Lucas changed direction a number of times” as he worked on the first three movies.
In the early drafts of A New Hope, we don’t see a plan for Anakin and Vader to be the same person. Some drafts even had Vader and early Anakin versions “in conflict with one another.” Lucas spoke about how Vader killed off the Jedi while the Emperor was launching his plan. And, most telling, he indicated that “only a few were left alive – including Obi-Wan and Luke’s father.”
Relatedly, that means Anakin’s backstory was as a separate Jedi who was killed by Vader, but managed to send off his children into hiding.
A fan posts here that we can find out more about how the original drafts of the story “looked very different” on Wookieepedia. This Journal of the Whills page has some information about “a handwritten two-page partial outline for the story” that provided a foundation for Lucas’s story. This second page presses further with the synopsis for the script of A New Hope.
For those who prefer direct sourcing, you can read a copy of the Brackett screenplay here, which includes many elements of the movie. We can see how a planet like Hoth appears at the beginning, with Luke and Han starting off the action. Luke was dragged into a cave too and had to contend with “a gigantic white form.” Yet, as the script proceeds, we can see differences emerge.
This detective work points back to the conclusion that Anakin and Vader were originally different people. As another fan from above posted, “the idea of them being the same person wasn’t developed until the making of ESB.”
When Did Anakin and Vader Become Two Separate Persons?
Given the extent of the surprise of Vader being Luke’s father in Empire Strikes Back, it makes sense that the idea was launched when writing this movie. Fans attest to how, when they first saw the second movie in 1980, they “couldn’t believe it” and at first thought “Vader was lying.”
Fans and writers have pointed to Leigh Brackett’s first script for Empire as a credible source for pinpointing the combining of Anakin and Vader. This discussion posits that the “I am your father” line was not in this draft or “the shooting script.” Lucas changed direction when writing with Lawrence Kasdan and changed again while filming.
This video helps convey a sense of how “the map beyond A New Hope was unclear” from 1977 to 1980. When Lucas first “outsourced the bulk of the writing” to science fiction writer Brackett, the original script contained “the majority of the story we’ve come to love in Empire.” Yet, Vader was not Luke’s father, “but another fallen Jedi motivated by vengeance.”
The ghost of Luke’s father actually appeared when Luke was training with Minch, or the early version of Yoda.
Other sources like this one confirm the separation to the same character development. We can make note of several differences between Brackett’s script and the movie, such as Han not being carbon frozen and Vader and Luke’s father as two separate characters. Interestingly, it was originally the Force ghost father that told Luke about his sister, Nellith, not Leia.
Moreover, Vader tempted “Luke with the power of the Dark Side.” In a nod to Revenge of the Sith, Vader even told “Luke that the Dark Side will enable him to ‘keep those he loves safe from harm.’” These details show a work-in-progress from A New Hope to Empire.
Anakin and Vader Weren’t Supposed to Be the Same Person
By tracing back the making of the first two movies, we can see how Anakin and Vader weren’t originally conceived as the same person. The original script from Empire makes it apparent that the merging of the two evolved with the writing and filming of the second original film.