'Star Wars' Just Revealed The Secret Of Darth Vader's Castle And An Even Worse Death Star

Disney CEO Bob Iger recently indicated that production on Star Wars movies will be slowing down, but fans will still get their fill of a galaxy far, far away in Lucasfilm's canonical novels, games, and comic books. Case in point: the pages of Marvel Comics' Darth Vader #22 have revealed some new information for fans to chew over, including the secret purpose behind Darth Vader's castle on Mustafar, as well as a newly-uncovered weapon that may be the single most evil device in all of Star Wars lore.

Warning: spoilers for Darth Vader #22 below.

We've previously written about Vader's mysterious castle that prominently appeared in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, but now some new information about the ancient, towering place has come to light. In Marvel's Darth Vader #22 (via ComicBookResources), it was revealed that the castle was intended to allow Vader to communicate with his dead wife, Padme Amidala.

In the comic, Vader interacts with the ghost of a Sith lord named Momin, who originally created the design for the obsidian castle, which Momin calls "the key". CBR has a solid breakdown of what happens from there:

Momin reveals his schematic for the castle is shaped like a tuning fork, because it's exactly that. This is why his spirit came to Vader and killed off his architects, as he felt insulted seeing their architectural design as something which isn't curated for a higher calling. Momin, gloating in full, confesses his tuning fork can read the mystical pitches, as well as the various frequencies of life. This allows the structure to tune in and actually pierce the veil of death, which would now enable Vader, or Anakin Skywalker (his Jedi persona), to reunite with Queen Amidala.

If you'll recall, one of Rogue One's production designers, Doug Chiang, previously talked about that film's use of the castle and how director Gareth Edwards was inspired by its look:

"One of things we landed on early was this idea of a tuning fork — a twin tower kind of look. And it was really interesting, because then that started to give Gareth a lot of ideas like, 'Well, maybe the structure is built this way because it is like a tuning fork. It's tuning the dark side in terms of the energy.'"

It sounds like the people of Lucasfilm and Marvel Comics know a good idea when they hear it, and it seems as if the Rogue One team may have directly inspired this aspect of this comic.

What could possibly be worse than a moon-sized ship with the power to destroy planets? In the issue, Momin (that Sith ghost Vader talks to)  unveils the horrifying answer: a powerful engine that not only allowed him to blow up planets, but also allowed him to freeze time "at the very moment people understood their imminent doom" so he could harness their fear and essentially channel it as nourishment for the Dark Side. Now that's messed up.

Darth Vader #22 is on sale now.

If you're looking for another way to explore Mustafar, you can do so in LEGO form in this upcoming set.