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From the story in A New Hope (and from this other question), it seems quite clear that Darth Vader was originally not meant to be Luke’s father.

On the contrary, Vader seemed to be the primary antagonist, while the Emperor appeared to be a distant figurehead, essentially being controlled by powerful generals. If so, then it seems unlikely that the eventual ending of Return of the Jedi was the one planned at the time of A New Hope. Is anything known about the original plans for the stories in episodes 5 and 6? (If there were any.)

EDIT: This is not a duplicate of Out of Universe, was Vader always planned to be…?. I am not asking if Vader was always Luke’s father, I am asking what was originally meant to be the entire plot - not just Luke's parentage - in episodes 5 and 6.

Praxis
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Gaussler
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    Possible duplicate of Out of Universe, was Vader always planned to be Luke's father? – BCdotWEB Feb 06 '16 at 09:23
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    It is not a duplicate. I'm asking what the original plan was. – Gaussler Feb 06 '16 at 09:26
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    Based on the answers in "Out of Universe, was Vader always planned to be Luke's father?" it doesn't look like this question is answered by it. – AncientSwordRage Feb 06 '16 at 10:25
  • @AncientSwordRage - Your double negative is a little confusing, are you saying this question is answered by the other one? If so, it seems to me that those answers only give us the info that Vader wasn't originally planned as as Luke's father, but don't address any other specifics of what Lucas might have had in mind for the sequels, which is what this question is asking about. – Hypnosifl Feb 06 '16 at 13:31
  • @hypnosifl I miss read my own comment and edited it. I've edited it back now. – AncientSwordRage Feb 06 '16 at 13:46
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    Boy meets girl, girl goes off with Han Solo instead, boy destroys galaxy-spanning Empire to vent rage. I’d watch that. – Paul D. Waite Feb 06 '16 at 17:32
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    Something, Something... Darkside? – Andrew Tice Feb 07 '16 at 11:16
  • It feels worth noting that the name "Vader" is suspiciously close to the German "Vater" which means "father"... Though perhaps that is merely coincidence. – DBPriGuy Sep 30 '16 at 14:27
  • I don't think Lucas had a plan for sequels. The original script went through many massive revisions initially where it seems very little besides the characters' names were agreed upon. With massive, possibly accidental success came the idea for sequels, but they weren't written by Lucas. He hired writers like Leigh Brackett to sculpt the story from the basic foundation. That's how you get deviations like the father/son thing. Many people give Lucas credit for Star Wars but he wasn't the genius behind it. He had money, yes, and was integral. But not the reason it worked – Kai Qing Oct 11 '17 at 23:02

1 Answers1

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The original draft of The Empire Strikes Back was written by sci-fi novelist and short story writer Leigh Brackett. She was hired by George Lucas to make a screenplay out of a rough story outline that he supplied.

Here is Brackett's original script, unedited by Lucas or others:

Tragically, Brackett died one month after completing this draft. The draft was heavily revised twice by Lucas himself and then given to Lawrence Kasdan, who changed the direction considerably.

In the original Brackett treatment of Lucas' story idea, there is a climactic lightsaber battle between Luke and Vader in an "orbital city" over "Besspin" (the genesis of the well-known Cloud City and Bespin).

What follows is a summary of pages 114-121 in the script:

  • Vader squarely defeats Luke after Luke chooses not to use his anger (and hence the Dark Side) against Vader, although Luke felt brief instances of darkness in himself and is disturbed by them. Vader senses these instances.
  • Then the scene turns surreal, with Vader towering over Luke and some kind of burning star field behind them as part of an elaborate Force illusion.
  • Vader then plucks stars from the sky and throws them at Luke. Really.

He tosses a handful of stars over Luke's shadowy form, where they run over him like sparks.

  • Vader impresses upon Luke the magnificent power of the Dark Side and beckons Luke to be re-trained in ways of the Dark Side. He claims that they can eventually "rule the galaxy together". Luke prefers to die. So they fight some more.
  • Luke turns off his lightsaber at the moment that Vader is about to strike, causing Vader to fall forward. Luke then jumps down the shaft to the bottom of the city.

There is no mention of Vader being Luke's father and Luke's hand is not severed. Another large difference is that Han is not frozen in carbonite. Also in this draft, the Emperor remains simply a distant figurehead whose likeness is never revealed, as in A New Hope.

The film ends on a rather anticlimactic note, with Han and Lando leaving to convince someone by the name of "Ovan Marekal" to join the Rebellion and with Luke staying with Leia. (Han and Leia are now in love and have a tearful goodbye.)

As for the third film, there are the usual various claims that Lucas had story ideas fleshed out for three, or six, or nine, or twelves films, etc. etc. from day one. But I can find nothing concrete regarding his pre-ESB plans for the third film in the original trilogy. Once ESB was released in its final form, it of course nullified whatever tenuous plans he had originally.

(In contrast, there is a lot to say about the development of Return of the Jedi — or rather "Revenge of the Jedi" as it was originally titled — after ESB's release and hence after the Vader-Luke father-son storyline had already been established.)

Praxis
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  • Very interesting! Do we know anything about the plans for the following film? – Gaussler Feb 06 '16 at 18:32
  • @Gaussler : Thanks! Nothing concrete about the next film --- I suspect that Lucas' original ideas dissolved quite quickly after the final draft for ESB was completed. – Praxis Feb 06 '16 at 18:42
  • But at what point does Vader become Luke's father? Surely we want to be looking at the immediately preceding draft rather than the original? – OrangeDog Sep 30 '16 at 17:55
  • @OrangeDog : That wasn't the question though. The question was, "If Vader had not been Luke’s father, what would the plot of the Original Trilogy be?" – Praxis Sep 30 '16 at 19:55
  • @Praxis yes I know. Note that it wasn't "what was the original plot". – OrangeDog Sep 30 '16 at 19:57
  • Interesting as I had often heard it said that Darth Vader was supposed to be a corruption of "Dark Father" - was that ever the case or was it just made up by the outside media afterwards? – komodosp Dec 21 '17 at 21:20
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    @colmde : Those are murky waters, as some dispute George Lucas' statements on the origin of the name (for instance, his assertion made in 2005 that it came from "Dark Father") as a retcon of whatever the actual origin was. You can read all about it in the answers to this question. – Praxis Dec 21 '17 at 22:41
  • I've never heard a twelve film cycle, it's been nine as far back as I can recall. Then when he did the prequels he said he was stopping at six. And when he sold to Disney they quickly said "No we aren't, either..." – VBartilucci Jul 23 '18 at 19:46
  • @VBartilucci - I think 12 was mentioned briefly, circa the time ESB was being filmed. It then dropped back to 9 pretty quickly (because Lucas realised he was getting tired of working in the same universe all the time and wanted to be able to focus on shiny new things ... which at the time would have been Indiana Jones), and finally down to 6 during the process of writing the script for ROTJ. – Jules Jul 24 '18 at 00:23
  • @Praxis - "I can find nothing concrete regarding his pre-ESB plans for the third film in the original trilogy" ... there are hints of what it would have been like. For instance, there is evidence that the "assault on the shield generator" storyline was part of the original concept for ANH that was dropped due to time constraints, and that Lucas planned all along to reuse the idea later on in the story, so it's likely that this part of the film at least would have been largely unchanged. – Jules Jul 24 '18 at 00:33