8 Early Star Wars Character Designs You Won’t Believe

The evolution of the Empire's foot soldiers is outlined in Ralph McQuarrie's official Star Wars Art book and their appearance has never stayed far from George Lucas's original brief.

Aside from a bunch of prototype helmets ending up in the Death Star garbage compactor, the Stormtrooper standard issue uniform remained relatively consistent throughout the planning phase.

But hold on a second, what's that in his hand? Apparently McQuarrie envisaged Stormtroopers as wielding Lighsabers, a concept that wasn't ironed out until Lucas expanded the series mythology and made the laser swords Jedi/Sith-exclusive.

The Stormtroopers evolution is fascinating, but unfortunately for them, at no point during it did they gain the ability to shoot straight.