One of the endless of joys of Star Wars is that there is always something new. And with every road taken in the movies, television shows, and animated series, there are as many or more unexplored. The world of concept art provides fans as much fascination in a galaxy far, far away as the films themselves.
As the prequel era of Star Wars kicked off, so did many concepts of Jedi and Sith that never made it to the screen. Some did, in different forms and mediums (and action figures!). All of them tease the imagination with what might have been. Here are ten incredible pieces of Jedi and Sith concept art.
Sith: General Grievous
George Lucas created a new Sith villain for each of the prequel movies, and The Matrix.
Jedi: Obi-Wan Kenobi
The look of Ralph Fiennes, who may have been someone Lucas considered casting in the role.
Sith: Jedi Hunter
Before the script for Kylo Ren, but before that, he went through numerous different design iterations. One of them was this pale-faced and spooky Sith-like character with an exaggerated Darth Vader style helmet. The design went unused in the movie but inspired Dave Fioloni to create a character in the Star Wars: Rebels animated series named The Fifth Brother.
Jedi: Ahsoka Tano
Another Dave Filoni inspiration resulted in one of the most important Star Wars characters of all time. Ahsoka Tano grew out of a need for an audience surrogate in the landmark Clone Wars animated series, and from the start, Filoni had settled on the idea she would be a Torgruta, like Shaak Ti from the prequels.
Early on, Ahsoka was called Ashla and was much younger than she eventually appeared on the show. Her core elements manifested from the start, though, evidenced in this piece of concept art from very early in the process of developing the series.
Sith: Worst Nightmare
The simple brief George Lucas gave concept designers for the new Sith lord in The Phantom Menace was simple: create your worst nightmare. Artist Ian McCaig did just that, creating this monstrous creature that shares a little DNA with Pennywise from It. Lucas found the design too scary, prompting the design team to go back to the drawing board. Elements of this design eventually found their way into successive characters, like Assaj Ventress and Mother Talzin, both of whom appeared in the Clone Wars.
Jedi: Ki-Adi Mundi
Ki-Adi Mundi is one of the most visible of the Jedi Council in the Star Wars prequels. He gets speaking lines in every film and a death scene during Order 66. His conical head design is pretty cool and was a big feature from the concept art that inspired him. For Revenge of the Sith, the Jedi nearly got a huge makeover. Lucas wanted to show the Jedi a little roughed up from the ongoing Clone Wars, so designers imagined Mundi with an eyepatch and more militaristic look than he had before.
Sith: Asajj Ventress
Asajj Ventress had quite the evolutionary process before she made it to the screen in the 2-D Clone Wars micro-series by Count Dooku became the villain in the film, this concept art inspired her animated appearance.
Jedi: Plo Koon
Another Jedi that almost got a radical new look for Revenge of the Sith was Plo Koon. One of the most inventive designs of the prequels (and Dave Filoni's personal favorite), Plo Koon ed Ki-Adi Mundi in the geared-for-war department. His biggest upgrade comes in the form of a cool two-bladed lightsaber.
The Jedi kept their traditional and simple attire for the movie, but this design was so awesome Hasbro made an action figure of it a little over ten years ago. Elements of this design seem to reflect in the Jedi costumes of the High Republic era, though no one has that cool lightsaber.
Sith: Darth Maul
Darth Maul went from one-and-done villain to one of the most critical characters in all of Star Wars. His design process went through an equally strange path, with detours into the aforementioned scary clown department. This design, by Ian McCaig, started to lock in on the eventual iconic look for the character. The face patterns actually originated with another random character, and the horns weren't horns at first; McCaig imagined them like feathers, fixed to Darth Maul's head via a wire. Ouch.
Jedi: Luke Skywalker
The look of the villain started off uncertain in The Force Awakens, and so did the look of its noblest hero. Luke Skywalker appears grizzled and haggard in this early piece of concept art from the movie. His status in the story, like so much else, was unclear, so concept designers had free reign to imagine him how they wanted. While Luke would eventually appear a little gruff on the island of Ach-To, he wouldn't be this battered from the terrible experience of losing his Jedi Temple to Ben Solo.
