6. He Was Never Originally Supposed To Wear The Helmet All The Time
It's impossible to separate Darth Vader from that helmet - without it he's just a crispy Hayden Christensen - which makes it all the more shocking that the character was initially designed without one. That's right: originally he was just a regular faced baddie. It was only when concept artist Ralph McQuarrie painted a scene of the character wearing a spacesuit based on the events of Lucas' initial script. The idea was that, whilst moving on a planet with a particularly hostile atmosphere, Vader would adopt a special helmet and suit in order to breathe, something Lucas hadn't considered. As McQuarrie himself explains it:
"I created this mask so he could breathe in space, with a suggestion of teeth in the masks grillwork."
Seeing this particular rendition of the character inspired Lucas, who decided to have Vader permanently confined to a suit (the backstory involving Anakin Skywalker becoming seriously deformed was added in a further draft). With the iconic suit, of course, comes that mystery control panel on the front, often thought by fans to be totally useless. Well, it isn't; according to the Star Wars Databank, that control panel does serve a necessary purpose: it works as part of an intricate "life-support system" which "regulates his respiratory functions." Sure the costume designers had that planned all along.