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Star Wars Art Book Reveals Early Design for Kylo’s Mended Helmet was a Callback to Vader


It looks like the original design for Kylo's mended helmet in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was supposed to be a callback to Darth Vader.

Lucasfilm just recently released The Art of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Not only does the book feature unused concept art for Episode IX, but it also offers readers a glimpse at unused scenes from the pre-production phase of the film, adding some transparency to the symbolism employed in the movie.

One of the most interesting symbols that the book expounds on is the design for Kylo Ren's newly repaired helmet (via CBR). In the film we get to see Kylo Ren wearing a mended helmet that seemingly uses the art of kintsugi, the Japanese method of repairing broken ottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer mixed together with powdered bits of gold, silver, or platinum.

The Rise of Skywalker's art book reveals early designs for the helmet, and it seems like J.J. Abrams and his team considered a few designs which highlighted the cracks spreading across the helmet instead of letting them blend in with the rest of its features. These lines were lit from behind, giving it a distinct orange glow.

According to concept artist Glyn Dillon, it was supposed to be a reminder of Vader and Mustafar.

"When it wasn't backlit, it looked quite flat. So we had the idea of adding light behind it. The original joins looked a bit like the lava of Mustafar," the artist revealed in the book, "In my mind, Kylo would constantly be using the Force to hold his helmet together, like when he used the Force to stop the laser bolt in VII. It would always be alive, this molten thing. But they've since gone through with a welding idea instead."

The backlit helmet would have been a really cool option for the movie. It's such a shame that Abrams decided to go with the blended look instead. We would have loved the call back to Vader and to his castle on Mustafar.

Read: Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 7 Episode 7 Reveals the Jedi's Shocking Crime

For more articles like this, take a look at our Star Wars: Episode IX page.