Discussion

Jenny Brown George lucas initially didn't want to make a sequel as the production of the previous had been a four year horrific seat of the pants experience that he refused to repeat moreover the unexpected success of starwars was starting to burn lucas out and sequels weren't regarded well at the time anyway so lucas had enough reasons to write it off however he eventually accepted because the story of the first film would be left unfinished without any sequels lucas still refused to direct it though because he would be too busy handling the financing and rebuilding his company industrial light and magic after most of its original crew had left to work in Battlestar Galactica

Jenny Brown Back at the time of the first film Alan Dean foster the ghostwriter of the novelization had been commissioned to write a sequel that could be adapted as a low budget film in case star wars was a box office failure the result was the splinter minds eye which is considered to be the first piece of the expanded universe the plans to adapt it however were ignored with the huge success of the first film

Jenny Brown Sci fi author Leigh Brackett was brought in as a writer as lucas now lacked the time and will to write the entire film himself like he did with a new hope bracket and lucas came up together with several ideas for the plot including elements that were left in the final product lukes new master being a crazy alien obi wan returning as a ghost the emperor being the true villian and a battle taking place in a arctic world she wrote one draft but died of cancer soon afterwards as a result lucas wrote the next few drafts himself before asking by director kirchners recommendation Lawrence kasdan to do revisions and he made the film darker and edgier incidentally the famous luke I am your father reveal wasn't in Bracketts draft lucas only added it in when he started rewriting the script himself although most of her version was rewritten two contributions by brackett did end up making it into the final film the planet names hoth and bespin brackett also had a screenwriting credit along with kasdan lucas left his name off the script because only two writers could be credited and he wanted to honor bracketts memory and the work she did while sick with cancer

Jenny Brown John berry who had been production designer on the first film was earmarked as a possible director for the series by lucas and given the second unit directors job on this film to give him some experience (he had previously signed on to direct Saturn 3 but it fell through when it turned out barry had no real idea how a film shoot actually worked)sadly he fell ill with meningitis halfway through production and died just just a few hours later forcing the team to find a new second unit director and robbing lucas of the obvious choice to direct the next film

Jenny Brown In Bracketts first full draft of the story vader was explicitly not lukes father and anakin appeared to luke on dagobah as a force ghost alongside Obi Wan lucas disliked this aspect as he had already thought a long time ago that vader and anakin were one and the same(a shocking family revelation similar to Jessicas father in dune) but Bracket died before lucas could discuss it with her therfore he then wrote his idea into the story and created all the background with kenobi the emperor and Mustafar to explain it it was around this time that he decided the empire strikes back would be the episode 5 of two trilogies the second being a prequel to show their backstory

Jenny Brown Bracket also introduced the idea of lukes twin sister only that in her version she was not leia but an unseen character named nellith who was intended as a sequel hook for later episodes this was what lucas had in mind when he inserted the there is a another line as he had conceived multiple sequels and would have a lot of room to exploit those ideas however after bracket died and filming on empire became a chaotic struggle he decided to wrap up the saga with only one more film this lead to making the other into someone we the audience allready knew

Jenny Brown Early story meetings had the wampas as a fish like monster that could swim through snow in contrast to the yeti like creatures seen in the finished film also the earliest drafts had the wampas arranging a coordinated attack on echo base before the empire even arrived and a scene of a wampa bursting through one of the bases walls was filmed before being scrapped there was also an additional sequence where c3po would have torn a warning sign off of the room were the captured wampas were being held leading to a unfortunate stormtrooper getting grabbed and mauled during the imperial invasion

Jenny Brown Vader would have been shown to live on a planet covered with erupting volcanos which later inspired mustafar in revenge of the sith and ultimately be fully entered into canon in rouge one

Jenny Brown Initially yoda was going to be named minch yoda and have a duel with obi wans ghost he also received several character designs before the production team settled on his final form with body sizes that went from diminutive to enormous even after his design was established the original color they chose for his skin was blue not green which was retained in the novelization the name minch was used for a member of yodas race in the expanded universe

Jenny Brown One of the first ideas for Lando was Lando kadar a legendary veteran of the clones Wars turned smuggler whome even vader of all people feared the character eventually became a clone who survived the clone wars and ruled legions of clones on a planet they settled on and from there he became a descendant of survivors of the clone wars born into family ashandi who reproduced solely by cloning it was later that he was given the last name calrissian and his final role

Jenny Brown One early draft had luke take the jedi oath before leaving dagobah said oath was a lot closer to a knightly vow than the more mystical jedi code that would appear later it went like this( I luke Skywalker do swear on my honor and on the faith of the brotherhood of knights to use the force only for good denying turning away from the dark side to dedicate my life to the cause of freedom and justice if I should fail this vow my life should be forfeit here and hear after)

Jenny Brown According to Rinzlers book on the making of empire one sequence that was written had a scene in the final where luke encounters stormtroopers and massacres them all with his lightsaber the scene was intended to build tension with the audience about luke potentially going to the dark side while also suggesting that he could potentially beat vader in a duel making his defeat much more shocking it was removed because lucas felt that the violence would be out of character for luke especially the cold blooded methodical manner the scene was done he would repurpose the scene for attack of the clones when anakin massacres the tusken raiders

Jenny Brown An earlier draft had lukes reason for not leaving with Lando and chewie at the end being that his jedi training was more important believing that this would make luke seem less sympathic Irvin kershner had it changed to where luke was still recovering from his injuries and that rescuing han would be his first priority once he was fully recovered

Jenny Brown Boba fetts armor was originally white and made for an army for super troopers but producer Gary kurtz realized they couldn't afford to make that many costumes George lucas decided to use the armor for a bounty hunter and it was changed to its current muted color scheme to contrast with the white stormtroopers and black vader

Jenny Brown Lucas originally wanted Jim Henson to give yoda life the film was being made at the elstree studios complex in England as was the muppet show Henson suggested frank oz as he himself was busy with the great muppet caper at the time and couldn't commit to a major role in another film ironically lucas initially felt puppets were not realistic enough so they considered having a trained monkey play yoda?!(i said it before i will say it again lucas you weirdo)this was only abandoned because the chosen monkey resisted to wear his mask

Jenny Brown Yaphet kotto was offered the role of Lando calrissian but turned it down because he believed he would be killed off and it would be difficult for him to find work after that