What Could Have Been: The Empire Strikes Back

Taking a look at the original script to George Lucas' "The Empire Strikes Back" written by Leigh Brackett.

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⏱️TIMESTAMPS⏱️
0:00 Intro
1:08 Splinter of the Mind's Eye
3:11 Almost Selling Star Wars to Fox
4:25 Leigh Brackett
5:12 Hoth
6:28 Love Triangle
6:48 Force-bond
7:20 Yoda
8:24 Luke’s Father and Sister
10:47 Vader’s Castle
11:18 Cloud City
12:51 Lucas’ Rewrite
13:45 Writer Lawrence Kasdan
14:31 Director Irvin Kershner
15:44 Producer Gary Kurtz
17:34 Sequels and Prequels

Thumbnail art by Morgan Yon

#starwars #empirestrikesback

[jayeckberg]

Additional fact. The president of Fox lost his job for the deal with Lucas giving him more money for a better percentage of the take. Fox wanted the sequel rights back. In retaliation for the firing, Lucas took Raiders to Paramount instead of Fox as he originally intended.

[KevyNova]

“The coordinates, man, the coordinates!”
-Jake Vader

[Hal-uqqv]

Man, that was a lot of stressful bts for Lucas at the time. Being a creator of the IP was really hard work. No wonder he had stress related chest pains, I mean who wouldnt

[SaturnCanuck]

That was a great insight. One thing, be careful when you say ILM had “nothing to show for it”. They did. They had built two, advanced, complicated computerized motion control cameras and most of the models. They had no footage to show, however.

[aurorauplinks]

The Empire STrikes back really is a great film. I love the openning of the droids launching, something about that is so subtle yet fun

[TheOmegaMan]

I like that you refer to Vader’s communication with the Emperor as “FaceTiming” lol

You’re not even wrong 😂

[MercerVerse]

People in my generation (Gen Z) love the prequels, and while I appreciate certain things about them, Empire Strikes Back is, for me, the definitive Star Wars movie.

One of the greatest movies in cinema, period.

[alisterfolson]

Forgot to mention the rights to the toys George brokered. As a 70's kid, this was part of it, for sure.

[John-nsse]

I never would have thought how completely different Empire strikes back would have been. The original storyboard has a lot of cool concepts and ideas but I’m glad with what we ended up with. I’m also glad that there were people that challenged George with his ideas and told him “No” when things got too extreme. That is something the prequels needed.

Most of you misunderstood my comment so I’ll preface that I LOVE the Prequels as much as I love the Orginal trilogy. But looking back now as an adult you can see the flaws and how things could have been done better or different.

[hobbsa]

Let us all take a moment of silence to honor Bracken!! She paved the way for one of the greatest sequels of all time!!!

[bensneb]

Just like how they took George Lucas's original Star Wars script and turned it into a comic, I love to see them take the original Empire Strikes Back script and turn it into a comic, that be interesting… The movie we got is one of the best of all time, so it all worked out

[sloanlance]

Remember: Chewbacca died on Sernpidal while saving the life of Anakin Solo, the third child of Leia and Han. This occurred in the first year of the Yuuzhan Vong War.

That's from the series of books which is NOW non-canonical. Thanks to Disney. I have many years of books from the Star Wars series that WERE canonical at the time. When Disney took over, they decided they wanted to take the story in a different direction, rendering those books non-canonical.

[MartyMcTube]

It's rare to learn new interesting facts about star wars, you delivered many.

[goshdarnchicken]

9:30 Mark Hamill has stated on multiple occaisions that his injury from the car accident and the wampa attack trom Empire are completely unrelated. He has also stated that the injuries incurred during the accident were greatly exaggerated in the years following ESB's release.

[eskanda]

The Empire Strikes Back is a perfect cinematic masterpiece

[haileyshannon]

I remember the old theories about what the Clone Wars was. Such as Obi-Wan (OB-1) and Owen (O-1) being clones.
Pet gargoyles?

[detroitdiezel]

Wow! Another great job!! I'm SO glad none of this happens, as Empire is still one of my all time favorite films.

[assemblyrequired]

Mimban is actually reused in the Expanded Universe as the location of one first major sites of the Clone Wars. Mimbanese natives and mining guild special interests engage in one of the bloodiest conflicts of the Clone Wars, with the Republic and the Separatists aiding each respectively. Originally in the EU content, Mimban was completely Separatist.

It is hinted in Solo that eventually, the Empire turns on the Mimbanese natives to make sure that the mining continues unabated, and the natives are none-too-happy about it, which is confirmed in later expanded media.

[Ms.JeanJacket]

George deserves so much more credit for navigating creative freedom, seeing his vision, and dealing with the mechanics of business.

[cable]

Sorry, I heard nothing after, "Vader lives with his pet gargoyles." That's some crazy shit. I did hear the facetime joke though, that was amazing.