Star Wars: James Earl Jones Initially Didn't Believe That Darth Vader Was Luke's Father

The true identity of Darth Vader was one of the biggest plot twists in cinematic history, and a lot of people couldn't believe the reveal. Apparently, even Darth Vader himself James Earl Jones wouldn't believe the line when he read it.

In some old interviews unearthed by The Hollywood Reporter, Jones said:

"When I first saw the dialogue that said, 'Luke, I am your father,' I said to myself, 'He's lying. I wonder how they are going to play that lie out?'"

People who know the behind-the-scenes story of Empire Strikes Back will remember that the Vader reveal was kept secret from everyone in the crew, and even Mark Hamill was told last minute. 37 years later, almost everyone knows that Darth Vader was really Anakin Skywalker.

In a separate interview, Jones was also said to have wanted to give Vader a bit more personality, but Lucas turned him down. He explains:

"I remember on [Empire], when George had a chance to counsel me, he said, 'We don't know what we did right [on A New Hope], so let's just try what we did,'… Naturally, I wanted to make Darth Vader more interesting, more subtle, more psychologically oriented. And he said, 'No. no. What we're finding out is you've got to keep his voice on a very narrow ban of inflection because he ain't human, really.' So, that was the answer."

Of course, we saw Vader become more human in Return of the Jedi, so it could have been a good decision to keep him more indifferent in Empire.

James Earl Jones came back to voice Vader in Rogue One, but a lot of people are hoping he has a small part in Star Wars: The Last Jedi which comes out Dec. 15.

See Also: Rian Johnson Talks His Upcoming Star Wars Trilogy; Explains His Pitch To Kathleen Kennedy