Lots of shocking things came out of this week’s episode of The Acolyte, but for me, one stands above the rest. It’s the fact that our new favorite maybe-Sith, the Stranger, is wearing a bronze helmet, not a black helmet.

If you’re reading this, you’ve probably seen the episode already or at least one of the episodes with this creepy new villain so you have an idea of what he looks like. Well, after the episode, Hasbro released images of its replica version of the helmet and it’s bright bronze, which I found shocking. Watching the show, I thought it was black. Star Wars bad guys (Vader, Maul, Kylo, Palpatine) tend to like black.

The assumption here is one of two things. The most likely possibility is that, in the reality of the show, the helmet was bronze when it was new but has since been in so many battles that there’s significant damage, hence the discoloration. Another possibility is that the helmet is actually bronze on-set but, through lighting and movie magic, it just ends up looking black on screen. (We’ve actually reached out to Lucasfilm to try and clarify this and will update the post if or when we find out.)

Now, why is this interesting at all? Well because, as most Star Wars fans know, it’s happened before. In The Empire Strikes Back, Han Solo’s jacket on Hoth looks blue on screen. In fact, it looks so blue on screen that when Kenner made toys of Han from those scenes, the toys wore blue. So, for a generation, everyone assumed the jacket was blue. However, it was later revealed the actual on-set jacket was brown. Debates rage to this day of which jacket is the real one, the one that was on set or the one we think we see?

Perception is a big issue in terms of the Stranger too. For the first four episodes, we didn’t see much of him and even when we did, he was always in the background so he looked like he was wearing all black. More Kylo Ren than Snoke. In the new episode though, we finally get to see the character in close-up and you can definitely see a mix of bronze and black. This new Acolyte poster is the clearest version of this.

So yeah. It’s bronze. And Han’s jacket is brown. But I don’t care. I prefer what I think I see on screen. Which, understandably, may not be a popular opinion. Manufacturers tend to go with the on-set reference provided by the studio and if it’s bronze, that’s fine. But come on! The jacket looks blue. The helmet looks blackened. And I’d never have known either was actually a different color if not for merchandising.

Where do you stand on this debate? Is the Stranger’s cortosis helmet black or bronze to you? What about Han’s Hoth jacket? Let us know below.

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