--- title: Here's How Much Darth Vader's Suit Cost description: It's almost as much as a Death Star canonical: https://time.com/4294289/darth-vader-suit-cost/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-14T19:49:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:42:17.101Z og:title: Here's How Much Darth Vader's Suit Cost og:description: It's almost as much as a Death Star og:url: https://time.com/4294289/darth-vader-suit-cost/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt89657b9bad200feb/69888f2e524fc00789df7965/darth-vader.jpg?branch=production&width=1161&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1161 og:image:height: 653 og:image:alt: darth-vader og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's How Much Darth Vader's Suit Cost twitter:description: It's almost as much as a Death Star twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt89657b9bad200feb/69888f2e524fc00789df7965/darth-vader.jpg?branch=production&width=1161&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's How Much Darth Vader's Suit Cost > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ## Video: Original 'Star Wars' Trilogy Returning to Theaters [Watch (HLS stream): Original 'Star Wars' Trilogy Returning to Theaters](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Fva51fI1.m3u8) (1:02)  _Published 2016-04-13. The original Star Wars trilogy is skywalking back into theaters._ by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Apr 14, 2016 7:49 PM UTC  Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back. Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back. Lucasfilm Ltd. by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Apr 14, 2016 7:49 PM UTC If you really want to impress your fellow _Star Wars_ fans at the next Comic Con, all you need to do is come up with $18.3 million. That’s how much it would cost to make an exact replica of Darth Vader’s suit, according to the calculations of [_Shade Station_](http://www.shadestation.co.uk/Darth-Vader)_._ The site, a sunglasses purveyor, has analyzed the costs of Darth Vader’s outfit, including special features like a voice modifier, breathing apparatus, prosthetic limbs, and augmented reality filter, and, of course, the base suit, and come up with a price tag. It’s a hefty one, too: $18.3 million. As the base suit alone would cost $12 million dollars—according to _Shade Station_ anyway—it is supposed to mirror a NASA space suit. While there are a lot of [fan theories ](http://www.theforce.net/swtc/injuries.html)about the extent of Darth Vader’s injuries, it’s clear that he can’t live without his armor. It was a good investment for Emperor Palpatine to make sure that Vader could continue hunting down Jedi knights for years to come. As for making your own Vader suit, if you start saving now (perhaps by selling some of your [_Star Wars_ collectibles](http://time.com/4188070/star-wars-the-force-awakens-toys-700-million-2015/)?) you may be able to wear a fully operational suit to the opening of the next installment of the [_Star Wars_ franchise](http://time.com/4284743/rogue-one-star-wars-trailer-teaser/). \[H/T [Mashable](http://mashable.com/2016/04/14/darth-vader-suit-cost/?utm%5Fcid=mash-com-fb-main-link#Dl5BGJYNDuqK)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4294289/darth-vader-suit-cost/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4294289/darth-vader-suit-cost/"},"headline":"Here's How Much Darth Vader's Suit Cost","datePublished":"2016-04-14T19:49:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:42:17.101Z","description":"It's almost as much as a Death Star","url":"https://time.com/4294289/darth-vader-suit-cost/","keywords":["Newsfeed","movies","Star Wars","darth vader"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt89657b9bad200feb/69888f2e524fc00789df7965/darth-vader.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt89657b9bad200feb/69888f2e524fc00789df7965/darth-vader.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"darth-vader","caption":"Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back.","creditText":"Lucasfilm Ltd.","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4294289/darth-vader-suit-cost/","name":"Here's How Much Darth Vader's Suit Cost"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Original 'Star Wars' Trilogy Returning to Theaters","description":"The original Star Wars trilogy is skywalking back into theaters.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Fva51fI1/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-04-13T16:41:36.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Fva51fI1.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4294289/darth-vader-suit-cost/","duration":"PT1M2S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4294289/darth-vader-suit-cost/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```