A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

The November 1977 issue of Star Wars Poster Monthly revealed - vaguely - how Vader became a cyborg. © 1977 Paradise Press and 20th Century Fox Film Corporation On Quora, someone asks: Prior to  Star Wars: Episode III  was there ever a canonical explanation for the appearance of Darth Vader? My reply: As early as late 1977, George Lucas allowed Lucasfilm, through the official  Star Wars Poster Monthly  magazine, to reveal tantalizing bits of the Dark Lord of the Sith’s backstory. In an article titled  Darth Vader Lives,  (Issue #2. November 1977) author John May based his work on some of the information that had been already published about Vader in publicity materials (movie lobby cards, collectors’ movie programs, and the photo inserts in the  Star Wars  novelization), plus a Rolling Stone magazine interview with George Lucas. Readers were told that Vader had trained as a Jedi Knight under Obi-Wan Kenobi’s tutelage but had turn...