A long-standing Star Wars mystery has finally been solved with Revenge of the Sith’s re-release

Star Wars fans must be excited to catch Revenge of the Sith again on the big screen, thanks to its re-release. After its premiere in 2005, this third part of George Lucas' prequel saga has led to all sorts of reactions. While some fans vastly prefer the original trilogy, others see the significance of the three prequels. There have been countless discussions about its details and how they tie into the bigger picture.

Some prefer how the prequels offer a foundational understanding of the empire, others hate it for its overuse of CGI or bad dialogue writing, among other reasons. Regardless, 20 years down the line, they must be nostalgic for the conclusion of this prequel series that packed so many details in its roughly two-hour duration. One of its most exciting parts was the development of Anakin Skywalker's character toward the dark side.

Revenge of The Sith's Hidden Character during Mustafar fight scene byu/itsjustmonty_ inStarWars

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However, the fans have been obsessed with a tiny detail since its release. It is about that mysterious grinning face that suddenly pops up in the background during the fight between Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. That creepy face appears for just a brief, blink-and-you-miss-it moment without any clear reason.

The Star Wars fans have had many theories about who this person might be and what it represents. As it turns out, it is not that deep after all. The answer to this long-standing mystery has nothing to do with the lore. Instead, it is similar to a Starbucks cup you might have seen in that one Game of Thrones episode or the "Jean Guy" you might remember from a Mandalorian episode. Yes, it's that kind of mistake!

The mystery figure in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith is actually just a crew member from the movie's set

Nearly two decades after its release, Star Wars fans finally have an answer for that mysterious "floating head" behind Anakin Skywalker. Until now, they were wondering if that was an easter egg that connects this movie to other parts of the universe. Thankfully, Todd Vaziri, a veteran in the VFX world, revealed the truth on the FXRant blog.

Vaziri was part of the team of ILM (Industrial Light & Magic), which worked on the visual effects for Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. However, the process was tricky, since he needed to find the green screen footage.

“The problem was I didn’t remember exactly what these plates looked like, both because it wasn’t my shot, and it was two decades prior. So I dug, and I dug, and finally, I found the plate photography. I couldn’t believe it. There on set was a man—likely a stunt rigger—wearing not a robe, but a peculiar shirt that resembled one, standing behind Hayden, manually puppeteering the greenscreen lava skiff that he and Ewan were fighting on. His face and the “Force ghost” matched up frame-for-frame.”

The mysterious "Force ghost" was just a crew member accidentally left in one of the frames during the post-production process. While explaining what happened, Vaziri added,

“We have to do frame-by-frame tweaking by hand, which means creating new garbage mattes in order to paint details into the motion- blurred edges. At some point during the process of refining the edges of the green screen extraction—which required new garbage mattes—the stunt rigger’s head was inadvertently revealed again in that paint process—but because you can’t see it unless you are stepping through it frame-by-frame— it was deemed finished by the artist, by the compositing supervisor, by the visual effects supervisor, by the editors, and by George Lucas himself."

That's how this dark presence stayed in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.