Darth Vader's Armor in 'Rogue One' Sparks New Controversy

A new image of the Darth Vader from Rogue One has sparked a brand-new controversy among Star Wars fans over what Darth Vader’s armor is supposed to look like. Don’t call it #DarthArmorGate just yet, but there is some serious discussion happening over what Vader wears on his shoulders (#cloakgate, perhaps?).

As seen on a forthcoming Rogue One playing card, Darth Vader’s getup looks pretty Darth Vadery. I mean, the guy only has one suit, right? Well, some observant fans have noticed that in A New Hope Vader’s shoulders are portrayed differently than they are in The Empire Strikes Back. What we’re talking about is an inner cloak which makes his shoulder-pad thing look thinner in A New Hope than it does in Empire. The Vader on the new playing card has the bigger shoulders, which shouldn’t be the case since at that point, he was still rocking the thinning inner cloak.

But there’s more! In Revenge of the Sith (set 19 years before A New Hope) Vader’s shoulders look beefed-up just like the Vader of Empire which is either a continuity error on behalf of George Lucas (unthinkable!) OR it proves Vader had more than one different style of armored shoulder-pads which he switched out when he was feeling frisky. Maybe he was just trying out a new fashion for like one day in A New Hope and then went back to his old ways right after.

Lucasfilm keeper of continuity Pablo Hidalgo weighed-in on #DarthArmorGate on Twitter saying fans should “wait to see what it actually looks like in the movie.” Which means Vader will either wear two different outfits, one consistent outfit, our, most shockingly, just a helmet and a cape with nothing else. After all, we’ve only seen the back of his head in the trailer, so, at this point, a semi-naked Vader is on the table, too.

Rouge One — a movie which is probably not about Vader’s fashion choices —will hit theaters on December 18.