8 Ways Darth Vader Almost Turned Out Completely Different

6. He Almost Had A Blue Lightsaber

Some bits of Star Wars iconography just can't be messed with. There's such a visual shorthand that builds on traditional conventions; the enemies wear darker, more muted colours reflected in the shades of their sleeker fighters and dominating spaceships, while the rebel's aesthetic is much more thrown together.

The colour of laser blasts is even different for them; green for Imperial, red for Alliance. And, of course, the lightsabers are coloured depending on the character's allegiance; Jedi have green or blue (or purple if you're Samuel L. Jackson), Sith have red. Simple, right?

As you can see in the above concept art by Ralph McQuarrie based on an earlier draft of the script that wasn't always the case; here Darth Vader wields a blue blade and Deak Starkiller (a brother of the character who would become Luke, killed in the opening scene) has a yellow one.

From a modern perspective it seems bizarre and given how much of McQuarrie's original drawings ended up informing the design of the galaxy far far away it's a surprise it didn't stick.

Would Vader has been as menacing with such a light colour? Probably a good thing he ended up going with red.