Though the Star Wars saga is very much Disney’s domain in a legal sense, the fans have long told stories of their own from that galaxy far, far away, and with this unofficial new Darth Vader movie, we see a testament to the dedication of the franchise’s followers.
Shared under the title “Vader Episode 1: Shards Of The Past – A Star Wars Theory Fan-Film,” it’s clear that a lot of time, money, and effort went into this post-Revenge of the Sith fan fiction, and better yet, the work is going down a storm with the Star Wars community, with the video already passing the 4 million view mark.
As you may have gathered from that “Episode 1” label, YouTuber Star Wars Theory may go on to further flesh out their vision of Anakin’s journey between the Prequel and Sequel Trilogies, including his arc’s connection to the late Padmé. Though we’ve already seen a fair amount of canonical spinoff material that explores this section of the timeline (the recent Darth Vader comic springs to mind), the films themselves have mostly left these years untouched, at least as far as Anakin’s story goes.
The one obvious exception is the character’s role in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, though even that movie taught us little new about the villain, with Vader’s screen time essentially serving as one more reminder that he’s a really mean guy who kills a lot of people (not that the fans were complaining).
Regardless, anyone who enjoys this new video may want to stay tuned for an Episode 2 somewhere down the line, but in the meantime, Lucasfilm is now less than a year away from offering their own continuation of the saga, with Star Wars: Episode IX hitting theaters on December 20th, 2019.
