Everything you need to know about Darth Vader

Here's some call facts and trivia bout Darth Vader

• Who is he? Darth Vader was Anakin Skywalker before he became a Sith Lord known as Darth Vader. A fallen Jedi Knight, Vader became the 'evil henchman' of Sheev Palpatine who rose to rule over the galaxy. In reality, the six Star Wars films are about the rise and fall of Vader’s character.
• The Darth Vader mask that appeared in Revenge of the Sith was fashioned using a digital design to computer-lathe the base master, from which molds were made to cast the on-screen costume masks. This meant Vader’s mask was exactly symmetrical.
• While Qui-Gon Jin theorized that Anakin’s virgin birth was the will of the Force, Palpatine implied in Revenge of the Sith that Darth Plagueis caused the birth using the Force - earlier drafts of the ROTS script suggested this was indeed the case. It’s non-canon however, so it’s only a theory.
• Vader's look was inspired by Nazi uniforms.
• In the Alan Dean Foster novel, Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, Luke and Vader have a duel and Luke chops off Vader’s arm. When Lucas decided that the novel would not form the basis of the second film the book was made redundant however Lucas keep the idea of the arm severing and reversed who did what. Which was again reversed in Jedi…
• Seven people have contributed to the character performance of Darth Vader in the movies. If we go in chronological order - Jake Lloyd played Anakin Skywalker in The Phantom Menace, Hayden Christian played Anni and Darth in the other two prequels, David Prowse was the suit in all three original trilogy films while James Earl Jones did the voice over 4 times (inc Revenge of the Sith). Bob Anderson chipped in with some stunt work in Jedi and Sebastian Shaw famously played the unmasked Vader in Jedi as well. Finally, when The Empire Strikes Back was redone for re release in 1994-95, C. Andrew Nelson was used for a few fill in bits and bobs ( See his drop by notes in the comments!).

• Occasionally people think it was Vader’s son Luke Skywalker who brought balance to the Force. While Luke’s efforts helped with it, the actual of balancing the Force came when Vader chose to throw the Emperor down the well (as the Emperor was in the middle of killing Luke with Force lightning). Vader found the compassion or love for his son was greater than what ever loyalty he had to the Emperor and the Dark Side of the Force. Vader truly was the chosen one.
• Vader was a defeated man. The main way he fell to the Dark Side was by way of trying to find a means to prevent his wife’s death. When he actually caused Padme's death what did he have to live for? Nothing. He was simply trapped as the heavy breathing vessel of Palpatine. He did eventually become obsessed with finding this son so they together could overthrow Palatine.
• In A New Hope, the character has only 8 minutes of screen time. It was all that was needed to propel Vader to becoming one of the most popular bad guys in the history of bad guys in movies.
• Vader’s theme song is known as the Imperial March and is often used to signify the arrival of a bad person by smart alecs who hum the tune as they enter a room.
• James Earl Jones did the voice of Vader.
• Vader’s confession to Luke that he was his father in The Empire Strikes Back is considered by many movie fans to be the best plot twist in a movie. This concept was not originally thought of by Lucas for the first film which clearly intended that Vader and Anakin were different people -please recall Obi Wan’s expository scene with Luke. The line said during the filming of the scene was “Obi Wan killed your father” – a clever ruse to throw people off the real twist (which apparently only the Lucas, Kasdan, Kershner and Hamill actually knew the truth of).