Kenobi TV series Darth Vader armor and helmet

[HMSwolfe]

The whole scene looked very strange. Some have their issues with the costume itself but I thought the scene looked like obvious greenscreen work, it's got little to do with the costume as far as I'm concered (but the posing could have been better too, he looks like an adult in a kid's seat with his knees up so high, but I digress). It's a lighting/color thing that makes the whole scene look videogamey. Rogue One depicted these environments much more realistically.
The only visible lighting in the scene are all the windows open to the blaring red sky with a light above the center of the room, and yet the interior is completely cool blue as if the windows don't even exist (except for a couple meager reflections). It doesn't make sense to me as a real environment. Many of the surfaces should be bouncing red but instead they're all strongly blue. And the saturation is just off the charts.

Like let's just ignore Vader for a second and focus on the environment. I think all that red pouring in should probably be knocking back the blue considerably. The top is the environment as released and the bottom is closer to what I would expect to see with that exterior:

View attachment 1583468

This extends to Vader himself, whose shiny black armor shows almost no signs whatsoever of being surrounded by blaring red windows. The window views also don't actually match the Mustafar exterior shot, where the sky featured blues and purples in the clouds. Here's my take again:

View attachment 1583469

However an important question remains: Is realistic actually better? My images are certainly less striking than the originals. It could have been an intentional stylistic choice on their part to forgo nuanced lighting in favor of very bold colors. But in that case, they really should have planned better so that Vader better reflected the lighting environment he was to be in.

One thing is for sure: Compared to Rogue One, things are certainly looking...thrifty. The helmet lowering during suit-up looked like it was literally a 2D asset being animated on a flat plane. The sequence I'd been hoping to see since the tease on Rogue One ended up looking like a flash animation. Shocking to me that they take out all the stops and blow the bank for Mando, but for Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader it's time to save money. I don't get it.

Yeah, having heard rumblings of things being run somewhat poorly behind the scenes of this show, I can see exactly what you’re saying. I know that it “literally is a TV show”, but it really isn’t up to par with what we’ve come to expect from Star Wars, especially with Disney bankrolling everything with their limitless coffers. It feels…like a TV show. From the 00s. Cheap.

 

[Imperial Weapon]

I really wish we could have gotten a taste of what a NON Disney live action show could have been like, I don't hate Kenobi but the Disney stuff doesn't make much sense and is quite slow moving, anyway did anyone think that Vaders lenses were darker in Kenobi? gone from a amber-red to a cherry red maybe?

 

[artusgrayboot]

Alas, I though the helmet was symmetrical. But as you can see from these quick edits/studies, that is not the case.

Last one is not the helmet from the series: it's an averaged symmetrical Vader helmet from the Prop Den forums. I tried posting it here earlier but it seems that when I shared the link, the admins wanted to approve it before it was displayed to everyone. But I wanted to share this photo as that custom helmet is exactly what my mind went to when I first saw the Vanity Fair picture and the scene in Kenobi Ep. 3 when the helmet is lowered on. The chest/shoulder armor may be symmetrical, but the helmet isn't. My bad on thinking that.

 

[InfinityLord]

I really like the helmet. It changed since the overly large dome and overly symmetrical helmet of ROTS.

 

[Imperial Weapon]

I really like the helmet. It changed since the overly large dome and overly symmetrical helmet of ROTS.

Actually it was the face that was too small rather than the dome.

 

[Imperial Weapon]

Alas, I though the helmet was symmetrical. But as you can see from these quick edits/studies, that is not the case.
View attachment 1583485View attachment 1583486View attachment 1583487View attachment 1583488View attachment 1583489
Last one is not the helmet from the series: it's an averaged symmetrical Vader helmet from the Prop Den forums. I tried posting it here earlier but it seems that when I shared the link, the admins wanted to approve it before it was displayed to everyone. But I wanted to share this photo as that custom helmet is exactly what my mind went to when I first saw the Vanity Fair picture and the scene in Kenobi Ep. 3 when the helmet is lowered on. The chest/shoulder armor may be symmetrical, but the helmet isn't. My bad on thinking that.
View attachment 1583490

The helmet on the full body image looks absolutely fantastic I wish they used it for the show.

 

[Imperial Weapon]

This thread makes me wanna see how Disney would make his suit in a post ANH event.

 

[InfinityLord]

Actually it was the face that was too small rather than the dome.

I never noticed that but it's true!

 

[InfinityLord]

Wait guys am I crazy, or is the Fortnite Darth Vader the same as the Kenobi series?

 

[Kroenen77]

And that is why I like the ROTS in this angle of lighting the eyes are almost featureless yet the teeth show and that to me looks terrifying.

The ROTS helmet has its own beauty.The massive dome rembers me always about the old Samurai Armors that where the original idea for the vaderarmor from George.

 

[Imperial Weapon]

The ROTS helmet has its own beauty.The massive dome rembers me always about the old Samurai Armors that where the original idea for the vaderarmor from George.

View attachment 1583693View attachment 1583694

Yeah abosultely and the slender build reminds me of Mcquarrie Vader I also loved how the whole suit made him look younger.

 

[InfinityLord]

I used to love ROTS Vader, but the one from Kenobi, in my opinion, is slightly better. But my winning vote goes over to R1 and the OT suits.

 

[vadermania]

It’s a huge difference if you put a big guy like Prowse in the suit or an average sized individual like Hayden. And I‘m talking about hero shots here, the walk & talks, not stunt work. Helmet, chest and shoulder armour were sculpted on a full body casting of Prowse. These parts were originally made to fit a BIG guy. Imagine Bob Anderson playing Vader in the ANH Tantive scenes. That‘s why I absolutely don‘t understand why they haven‘t used a big guy to play a fully costumed Vader in the Kenobi series. Especially when you produce for the small screen.

 

[VitalNonsense]

It’s a huge difference if you put a big guy like Prowse in the suit or an average sized individual like Hayden. And I‘m talking about hero shots here, the walk & talks, not stunt work. Helmet, chest and shoulder armour were sculpted on a full body casting of Prowse. These parts were originally made to fit a BIG guy. Imagine Bob Anderson playing Vader in the ANH Tantive scenes. That‘s why I absolutely don‘t understand why they haven‘t used a big guy to play a fully costumed Vader in the Kenobi series. Especially when you produce for the small screen.

6'7" Dmitrious Bistrevsky plays Vader in shots when they want Vader's full height. He's actually slightly taller than Prowse, though he doesn't have the same proportions that Prowse did (dude was wide).
6'4" Tom O’Connell (pictured) is our new Bob Anderson. He's the primary performer for Vader's saber fights in Kenobi.
Meanwhile it seems Hayden Christensen may do Vader in shots that aren't full body, and obviously if the face is exposed.
All three of them wore the suit at times throughout production, similar to how Mando is also three different actors in the suit.

 

[Imperial Weapon]

Is his chest armor a new sculpt? they seemed to have fixed the neck gap, maybe they might've repositioned it but I'm not sure, any thoughts?

 

[artusgrayboot]

Is his chest armor a new sculpt? they seemed to have fixed the neck gap, maybe they might've repositioned it but I'm not sure, any thoughts?

I believe so yes. It doesn't look similar to any other armor

 

[artusgrayboot]

Also: the Facebook group Darth Vader Costumers and Fans have some decent insights into the new armor.

 

[Too Much Garlic]

It’s a huge difference if you put a big guy like Prowse in the suit or an average sized individual like Hayden. And I‘m talking about hero shots here, the walk & talks, not stunt work. Helmet, chest and shoulder armour were sculpted on a full body casting of Prowse. These parts were originally made to fit a BIG guy. Imagine Bob Anderson playing Vader in the ANH Tantive scenes. That‘s why I absolutely don‘t understand why they haven‘t used a big guy to play a fully costumed Vader in the Kenobi series. Especially when you produce for the small screen.

They could easily remedy all that by scanning the parts and scaling them down to fit Hayden. Yet... they don't seem to do that. Guess it's too many steps than they are willing or able to go through.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

.

 

[InfinityLord]

Free Bump!