The backstory of Star Wars, according to Lucas in 1977

[Civil War Man]

If Lucas had the whole thing planned out, then it follows that he would deliberately spread misinformation to do the big reveal in ESB.

He did with the actors, at least. James Earl Jones was given a different script than everyone else. Apparently, to David Prowse and Mark Hamill, the big reveal of that scene was that Obi-Wan, not Darth Vader, killed Luke's father.

[DPDarkPrimus]

If Lucas had the whole thing planned out, then it follows that he would deliberately spread misinformation to do the big reveal in ESB.

He did with the actors, at least. James Earl Jones was given a different script than everyone else. Apparently, to David Prowse and Mark Hamill, the big reveal of that scene was that Obi-Wan, not Darth Vader, killed Luke's father.

Of course part of this was because David Prowse couldn't keep his damn mouth shut.

[CaptainChewbacca]

If Lucas had the whole thing planned out, then it follows that he would deliberately spread misinformation to do the big reveal in ESB.

He did with the actors, at least. James Earl Jones was given a different script than everyone else. Apparently, to David Prowse and Mark Hamill, the big reveal of that scene was that Obi-Wan, not Darth Vader, killed Luke's father.

Mark Hamil knew. They told him because he had to 'overreact' to the news about Obi-wan, and then act appropriately for the rest of the film given what he knew.

I *believe* it was Lucas, Jones, Hamil, and a sound tech that knew, and nobody else. But Hamil definitely knew, as he's said in interviews.

[Kurgan]

I find it hard to believe that Lucas would, while keeping the "Vader is the same person as Luke's father" idea in mind, create fake script drafts (that would be for his eyes only anyway) that conspicuously left out this fact or said the exact opposite.

Not telling the actors is one thing, lying in interviews you could even try to argue, but not even writing it in his own private notes? That doesn't make any sense. I find it easier to believe he thought up this "plot twist" between the release of "Star Wars" in '77 and the writing of ESB in '78.

Another problem with this "he deliberately lied to keep the secret from getting out" is that the official novelization reveals the "father" secret, was based on the screenplay, and came out a month before the movie hit theaters. So someone reading that first would be in the know!


Anyway, as it's been said before, this is for the ones who say Lucas had it all planned out in advance.

[Anguirus]

Not telling the actors is one thing, lying in interviews you could even try to argue, but not even writing it in his own private notes? That doesn't make any sense. I find it easier to believe he thought up this "plot twist" between the release of "Star Wars" in '77 and the writing of ESB in '78.

This thread isn't about his notes, it's about an interview. I just find it amusing how non-relevant the fact that he didn't spill beans before ESB in an interview is. His notes, yeah, those are strong evidence that the characters weren't combined till he wrote ESB.

the official novelization reveals the "father" secret, was based on the screenplay, and came out a month before the movie hit theaters.

Hope most of those reading the novelization kept their mouths shut!
Homer Simpson: "I can't believe Darth Vader is Luke's father!"

[Kurgan]

The point about the novel is, why would Lucas be so secretive around his cast and crew, in his scripts, interviews and private notes, but then when it comes to the novelization, he just blabs the whole thing to the public a whole month in advance?


Or didn't he care if there were spoilers that close to theatrical release?


I don't know if people were all over usenet with the novel's spoilers, but it would be fun to find out!


PS: Anybody know about any other ESB related materials that spilled the beans before May 21st?

[Spanky The Dolphin]

I believe the whole "the little green alien Luke finds on Dagobah is really Yoda" was supposed to be it's own little secret revelation, but merchandising and scheduling issues, particularly with Marvel's comic adaptation of the film, pulled the plug on that, so Lucasfilm decided to concentrate more on keeping the film's primary revelation a top secret.

[Kurgan]

Didn't the comic adaptation (unlike the novel) come out after the movie's debut?

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Yeah but they have to start working on that stuff well in advance.

[Elfdart]

I don't see what's so far-fetched about Lucas keeping the Anakin/Vader thing a secret to the point of putting out fake scripts and bullshitting people. Todd Browning did the exact same thing to the studio, as well as his cast and crew in Mark of the Vampire so nobody would know that Lugosi's character Spoiler

... wasn't a vampire

[Kurgan]

My point was that the early scripts were not meant for public consumption, so there was no need to "fake" them. They were just for Lucas as he was developing the story. What got published in 1979 (in the first edition of The Art of Star Wars) was the "screenplay" that was more or less identical to what was seen in theaters in 1977, minus a few scenes (Jabba the Hut & Han, Luke with Biggs & Co. at Toschi Station, the Treadwell scene, etc), and the "Episode IV: A New Hope" subtitle (which wouldn't get added to the movie until 1981).

As I recall, the Art of ESB came out after the movie, as did the book and record and most of the other materials, so there were no "spoilers" (but I would have to double check some of them, which is why I asked about any of the other materials). The comic itself also came out after the movie had debuted.

However the NOVEL came out BEFORE the movie (assuming my sources for the dates are correct), which means that the public knew the whole story of ESB (the novel was very close to the screenplay which is again virtually identical to what we saw onscreen, minus a few deleted scenes and obviously internal character thoughts) before the theater lights went down.

If Lucas was so dead set on preventing spoilers, why didn't he delay the novel until after the movie had come out, like the other materials? He could even have censored promotional material to preserve the "surprise."

So unless you can show me that Lucas was required to submit every draft of the early scripts to someone who might have blabbed them, I find no reason to assume he censored this idea from them (but let Donald F. Glut blab them out in the novel?).

As it turns out the novel was not widely read enough by fans that they were spoiled beforehand (I imagine a lot of the kids were too young to read something like that anyway), but if Lucas was that concerned about secrecy, he wouldn't have released it ahead of time, so any idiot could pick up a copy, turn to page 198, and know the truth.

That's why I find it far-fetched...


Edit: To address Spanky's point, in the same way that the shooting script was supposedly censored to prevent the cast from blabbing the spoiler out of the set, the novel could have been done in a similar fashion... write the whole thing minus 1-2 pages where the secret is revealed (telling the author not to write what happens, just that it's shocking to Luke), and then just submit that last part when its time to release the novel, a week/month/whenever after the movie opens. If it's all done ahead of time, then many more people would know the secret, with the other materials based on the movie. It just doesn't make sense that he'd censor the internal drafts that almost nobody would see, but leave these other public ones uncensored.

[Galvatron]

This thread isn't about his notes, it's about an interview. I just find it amusing how non-relevant the fact that he didn't spill beans before ESB in an interview is. His notes, yeah, those are strong evidence that the characters weren't combined till he wrote ESB.

Not even then. Leigh Brackett's first draft of TESB's script--which was based on a story treatment written by Lucas himself back in November '77--had Luke meeting the ghost of his dead father on Dagobah.

It wasn't until Lucas wrote the second draft in April '78 that the two characters were combined.