The ominous—and iconic—voice of Star Wars villain Darth Vader could have sounded a lot different, had George Lucas decided to go another way.
In 2015, Star Wars creator George Lucas recalled, “I created a villain… I knew the voice had to be very, very special. And I had to make a choice—a choice that was a tough choice, but an easy choice, really—between Orson Welles and James Earl Jones … [Jones] won hands down.” (Lucas has also said that he feared Welles’s voice would be too recognizable.)