Darth Vader

(Okay, maybe not about *everything*...)

Ended, The Clone Wars have.

Rogue One audiences were somewhat surprised at the theater when the movie returned us to planet Mustafar for one scene between Sith Lord Darth Vader and Director Orson Krennic. Vader floats inside his bacta tank, soaking up nutrients while contemplating the Rebels’ demise from the security of his Barad-dûr-like fortress of evil. It’s a fun image, and one that we might see again. But probably minus Vader.

Even before those highly-publicized reshoots, Rogue One went through several story changes during development, which isn’t unusual for the majority of films, especially big blockbusters. Just yesterday we learned more details about the original, somewhat happier ending to the flagship installment in Lucasfilm’s A Star Wars Story series, but that was far from the only change made during the scripting stage.

Star Wars Rebels is preparing to tie off a major continuity knot with a final showdown between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Maul, though it’s worth wondering how else a fan-favorite like Maul could have impacted the Star Wars we know. Case in point, showrunners reveal the Season 2 fight that might have seen Vader cutting down Maul, and why said foe endured.

It’s telling that Rogue One’s best character is a robot.

We may be far removed from the original days of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo and Darth Vader, but those stories are nonetheless timeless. If anything, Star Wars: The Force Awakens was proof enough that almost four decades later, the world is still ready to have intergalactic larger than life heroes and villains that tell a fantastic story. Perhaps most importantly, the Star Wars universe, both core and expanded, is an incredibly rich tapestry of characters that provide endless opportunity for cosplay. In celebration of the characters we are quite familiar with and those that are a little more obscure, we’ve gathered a grand array of cosplay here in one place.

Ever wanted your own personal Sith Lord to do thy bidding? Need an astromech droid to record your day-to-day dalliances for the Galactic Empire? Both of those things can be hard to track down, but lucky for you, we just so happen to be giving those exact things away. That's right, you can take home your very own R2-Q5 Imperial Astromech Droid and Return of the Jedi Darth Vader sixth-scale figures just because we like you. Sure this Darth Vader won't actually be able to Force Choke anyone that's giving you the business, but you can pretend he is. That's close enough, right?

Sideshow Collectibles has long been providing the collecting world with sixth-scale figures based on Star Wars. In fact, until Hot Toys jumped on the bandwagon ahead of The Force Awakens, Sideshow was pretty much the only place you could find high-end figures based on George Lucas’ creation. Still, in all that time, there haven’t been a tremendous amount of these figures released, with Sideshow carefully curating its collection with some unexpected choices. Of course, you can’t have the Star Wars license without putting your own spin on the Sith Lord Darth Vader. As one of the most recognizable entities from the saga, Vader is a prime choice for an action figure. In fact, he’s such a marquee character, it’s the second time Sideshow’s released a figure for him. However, there are plenty of improvements with this revamped edition of Sideshow’s previous Return of the Jedi Darth Vader to make it more than a simple repeat viewing.

Star Wars Rebels has gifted us similarly high-profile big bads each year, from beating Rogue One to James Earl Jones’ Darth Vader return, to this year’s reemergence of Grand Admiral Thrawn. Don’t expect Vader to have any significant role going forward, however, as Rebels boss Dave Filoni says there’s been “an elected decision to not have Vader around.”