8 Ways Darth Vader Almost Turned Out Completely Different

5. Lucas Was Going To Kill Him Before The Emperor

When he'd first written Star Wars Lucas realised the story was so expansive there was enough material for many more films, with the idea of two or three trilogies being thrown around from the early days; there was a time when a sequel trilogy was more likely than a prequel one. The idea for these Episodes VII, VIII and IX are very different from the ones we're going to get over the next few years; in these Luke goes out looking for his sister, who is not Leia, with the two teaming up to finally take on the Emperor in number nine. But the big changes begin in an alternate Episode VI.

A slight hangover from early drafts (which will be expanded upon later), the original Revenge Of The Jedi would see Vader killed in the second confrontation between him and Luke. Not only would this obviously change Vader's arc, removing his redemption, but it would place him back as a supporting role in the story, bumping Palpatine up to the focal villain.

Lucas would later decide to end things with Return Of The Jedi (the title changed because, well, there wasn't any revenge) and thus these threads were all compounded into that one Episode, leading to all loose ends being tied up.