Star Wars: What Darth Vader & Boba Fett Really Looked Like Under Their Helmets

Anakin Skywalker is a man of many faces. Across the live-action branch of the "Star Wars" franchise, he's brought to life most prominently by Jake Lloyd, Hayden Christensen, James Earl Jones, and Sebastian Shaw, though other talents have provided their skills to the role as well, including Spencer Wilding, Daniel Neprous, Gene Bryant, Bob Anderson, and David Prowse. Some of these many talents' visages are shown as "Star Wars" explore the story of little orphan Ani, but most are hidden behind Darth Vader's haunting mask. Actually, a lot of important "Star Wars" characters' faces are obfuscated in this way; helmets are apparently just the fashion in a galaxy far, far away.

Aside from Daniel Logan, Temuera Morrison, and Jason Wingreen, infamous bounty hunter Boba Fett is also portrayed in live-action by Finnegan Garay and Jeremy Bulloch. Again, these additional talents perform their onscreen work when face time is not required. Just because Darth Vader or Boba Fett are technically on set for a scene doesn't mean that a popular, named actor is there while shooting.

There's an old picture taken during the filming of the original trilogy that shows what a normal day on set might look like and features both Darth Vader and Boba Fett without their helmets on. The talent seen in the suits are Bulloch and Prowse. Bulloch looks disgruntled, and Prowse looks, for lack of a better word, really, really sleepy. Apparently, ruling the galaxy with a lightsaber and an iron fist is rather tiring.

In October 2023, the above picture of Jeremy Bulloch as Boba Fett and David Prowse as Darth Vader resurfaced on r/StarWars. The image, which was shared with the tagline, "For those of you wondering what Darth Vader and Boba Fett look like without their helmets," received 3K upvotes and approximately 100 comments. Several Redditors, like u/jerryleebee and u/ZeroXNova, mentioned that the young Prowse bears a resemblance to Adam Driver, the actor who portrays Kylo Ren in the latest "Star Wars" trilogy. Since the two characters are related, it's a fun coincidence that Driver looks like at least one of the actors who portray his character's grandfather.

The comment that garnered the most attention came from u/CalmPanic402, who said, "Somehow that looks dead-on what I expected Boba to look like before the prequels. Still love [Temuera Morrison, though]."

For the most part, the comment section remained positive, which is a fun treat considering  "Star Wars" fandom is notorious for housing less respectful voices. Perhaps the respect is bolstered by the fact that both Bulloch and Prowse are no longer with us, as both actors died in 2020, Bulloch from complications from Parkinson's disease and Prowse from COVID-19.

While Jeremy Bulloch and David Prowse are not the actors whose faces are associated with their respective "Star Wars" roles, their experiences are still well documented. In a posthumously released interview with Star Wars Insider, Bulloch spoke to the "Star Wars" community and assured fans that he harbors no hostility toward the others who donned the bounty hunter's helmet. "On the rare occasions we have gotten together at conventions," he said, "we marvel at the fact that Boba Fett played such a small role in the films but became so iconic."

Conversely, interviews with Prowse reveal a more dissatisfied tone. During a 2006 interview, he laid out how he never knew during the filming of the original trilogy that James Earl Jones would be hired to dub him over. He also noted that George Lucas never trusted him with the information that Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) was Darth Vader's son. "Everything was kept a secret because they were afraid things would leak," he explained. "They were afraid I was going to say something in an interview. While if you're one of the main characters the last thing you would do is give such information away. I was very careful so I hated the lack of trust."

It's funny, then, that Bulloch looks so grumpy and Prowse looks so calm in that picture. Maybe Bulloch was still struggling with his armor, an issue he noted in the above interview, and maybe Prowse was hiding his frustration behind a calm mask. Who knows? A picture might be worth a thousand words, but sometimes words are just easier to understand. After all, we're not Force mind readers here.