Star Wars (lost original "Luke Starkiller" scene of space opera film; 1977): Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 22:30, 19 January 2024

The film's theatrical poster, with Luke Starkiller/Skywalker front & centre.

Status: Lost

Star Wars (retroactively titled Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope) is a 1977 space opera film starring Mark Hamill in the leading role of Luke Skywalker, a farm boy turned Jedi pilot who is ultimately responsible for destroying The Death Star at the end of the film. The character became an overnight sensation and his name iconic, but according to the original script he had a very different surname. A scene was filmed using the original name, but has not resurfaced since.

Background

Four years before Star Wars: A New Hope released in 1977, George Lucas had written a 2-page film synopsis entitled "Journal of the Whills". This featured the training of a 'Bendu-Jedi' space commander named C.J. Thorpe by Mace Windy. Movie studio executives found the story too complex and confusing, whereupon an annoyed Lucas wrote a deliberately simplistic 14-page story treatment, "The Star Wars", that scrapped Thorpe and Windy in favour of General Luke Skywalker, who was tasked with rescuing a rebel princess from an evil empire. A year later Lucas adapted this version into a screenplay, which introduced the characters of Anakin Starkiller and his father Kane. The Luke Skywalker character was now described as a friend of the Starkiller family.

All three were however scrapped in Lucas' 2nd draft from 1975, in which a farmboy named Luke with no surname makes his first appearance. The draft also featured "The Skywalker", who was described as the protagonist and "The Starkiller", his enemy. Eventually, this all evolved into the familiar story of Luke the farmboy rescuing the rebel princess and destroying the Death Star, aided by Ben Kenobi and opposed by Kenobi's fallen student Darth Vader. The final draft - dated January 1st, 1976 - was in nearly all respects similar to the theatrical release, save that Luke's surname had evidently still not been finalized.

The Scene

In the finished film, upon finding the Princess Leia in her cell on the Death Star, actor Mark Hamill gives his character's full name for the first time, announcing that "I'm Luke Skywalker, I'm here to rescue you." According to Hamill, however, the script for the scene had him identify himself as "Luke Starkiller".^[1] Lucas apparently changed the surname to Skywalker immediately on hearing the line spoken, as he disapproved of the negative connotations around "Starkiller" since Hamill was portraying the hero.

Availability

Unlike many Star Wars deleted scenes and outtakes, the "Starkiller" take has never been shown publicly, suggesting it was not preserved - plausible, considering that at the time it would have been only one botched take among many over the course of routine filming. If it was kept, it most likely resides in Disney's tape vault as part of the series' extensive library of extraneous material, since Disney bought the entire Star Wars franchise along with LucasArts in 2012.

Gallery

Luke Skywalker behind-the-scenes history video.

References

↑ Mark Hamill's Twitter post telling the story of Luke's original name. Retrieved 14 Jul '22

[1] Mark Hamill's Twitter post telling the story of Luke's original name. Retrieved 14 Jul '22

[1]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{InfoboxLost
-|title=Star Wars: A New Hope
+|image=Star wars a new hope poster.jpeg
-|description=lost original Luke "Starkiller" scene from sci-fi film
+|imagecaption=The film's theatrical poster, with Luke Starkiller/Skywalker front & centre.
-|startyear=1977
+|status=<span style="color:red;">'''Lost'''</span>
-|timeframe=No
-|image=Image 2022-07-09 223319639.png
-|imagecaption=Mark Hamill confirming the scenes existence on Twitter.
-|status=Lost
-|category=Lost audio
 }}
+''Star Wars'' (retroactively titled ''Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope'') is a 1977 space opera film starring Mark Hamill in the leading role of Luke Skywalker, a farm boy turned Jedi pilot who is ultimately responsible for destroying The Death Star at the end of the film. The character became an overnight sensation and his name iconic, but according to the original script he had a very different surname. A scene was filmed using the original name, but '''has not resurfaced since'''.
-Star Wars: A New Hope, is an iconic film, but the main character "Luke Skywalker" wasn't originally called Luke Skywalker, and this is mentioned in a now lost scene from the iconic movie.
+==Background==
+Four years before ''Star Wars: A New Hope'' released in 1977, George Lucas had written a 2-page film synopsis entitled "Journal of the Whills". This featured the training of a 'Bendu-Jedi' space commander named C.J. Thorpe by Mace Windy. Movie studio executives found the story too complex and confusing, whereupon an annoyed Lucas wrote a deliberately simplistic 14-page story treatment, "The Star Wars", that scrapped Thorpe and Windy in favour of General Luke Skywalker, who was tasked with rescuing a rebel princess from an evil empire. A year later Lucas adapted this version into a screenplay, which introduced the characters of Anakin Starkiller and his father Kane. The Luke Skywalker character was now described as a friend of the Starkiller family.
-==Background==
+All three were however scrapped in Lucas' 2nd draft from 1975, in which a farmboy named Luke with no surname makes his first appearance. The draft also featured "The Skywalker", who was described as the protagonist and "The Starkiller", his enemy. Eventually, this all evolved into the familiar story of Luke the farmboy rescuing the rebel princess and destroying the Death Star, aided by Ben Kenobi and opposed by Kenobi's fallen student Darth Vader. The final draft - dated January 1st, 1976 - was in nearly all respects similar to the theatrical release, save that Luke's surname had evidently still not been finalized.
-years before Star Wars: A New Hope released in 1977, George Lucas wrote a 2 page synopsis titled: "Journal of the Whills" which featured the training of a bendu-jedi space commander named "C.J. Thorpe" by another character named "Mace Windy". However, movie studio executives found Lucas's story too complex and confusing. Annoyed, Lucas wrote a 14 page story treatment titled "The Star Wars" scrapping, the C.J. Thorpe and Mace Windy characters, which also featured a character named General "Luke Skywalker" tasked with rescuing a rebel princess from an evil empire. In May 1974, George Lucas adapted the previous story treatment into a rough draft screenplay, it introduced a character called "Anakin Starkiller" who lived together with his father "Kane Starkiller", the Luke Skywalker character from the story treatment was also featured in this screenplay, he was also described as a friend of both Anakin and Kane Starkiller.
-These 3 characters however were eventually scrapped by the time Lucas wrote his 2nd draft in January 1975, which a farmboy named "Luke" with no surname makes his first appearance, 2 new characters also introduced were "The Skywalker" who was described as a protagonist and "The Starkiller" who was described as an antagonist. Lucas from then on, adapted the script on and on, eventually featuring Luke destroying the Death Star, Ben Kenobi and his fallen student Darth Vader. In this version, Luke's father was killed when Darth Vader stole a kyber crystal to become a sith lord. The 4th and final draft dated January 1st 1976, was similar to the theatrical release, but it featured Luke being called "Luke Starkiller" which remained during filming of the film.
 ==The Scene==
-In the 2nd part of the movie, where Han Solo, Chewbacca and Luke along with Ben Kenobi, C-3PO and R2-D2 infiltrate the Death Star in order to save Princess Leia, there is a scene where Mark Hamill, who plays Luke Skywalker, comes into Princess Leia's cell and says "I'm Luke Skywalker, I'm here to rescue you." according to Hamill, the scene originally had Hamill as Luke Skywalker run into Leia's cell and say "I'm Luke Starkiller, I'm here to rescue you." however Lucas changed the surname to "Skywalker" on the spot, as he disapproved of the negative connotation of the surname "Starkilller" as Hamill was portraying a protagonist.
+In the finished film, upon finding the Princess Leia in her cell on the Death Star, actor Mark Hamill gives his character's full name for the first time, announcing that "I'm Luke Skywalker, I'm here to rescue you." According to Hamill, however, the script for the scene had him identify himself as "Luke ''Starkiller''".<ref>[https://twitter.com/markhamill/status/977404589204033536 Mark Hamill's Twitter post telling the story of Luke's original name.] Retrieved 14 Jul '22</ref> Lucas apparently changed the surname to Skywalker immediately on hearing the line spoken, as he disapproved of the negative connotations around "Starkiller" since Hamill was portraying the hero.
 ==Availability==
-The clip has never been shown publicly, it most likely resides in Disney's tape vault along with other deleted scenes from the movie as Disney bought the entire Star Wars franchise along with LucasArts in 2012.
+Unlike many ''Star Wars'' deleted scenes and outtakes, the "Starkiller" take has never been shown publicly, suggesting it was not preserved - plausible, considering that at the time it would have been only one botched take among many over the course of routine filming. If it was kept, it most likely resides in Disney's tape vault as part of the series' extensive library of extraneous material, since Disney bought the entire ''Star Wars'' franchise along with LucasArts in 2012.
-</gallery>
+==Gallery==
-===Videos===
+{{Video|perrow  =1
-{{Video|perrow  =1
    |service1     =youtube
-   |id1          =v=37BXHsxLP4A
+   |id1          =37BXHsxLP4A
-   |description1 =Talks about the scene (starts at 2:40)
+   |description1 =Luke Skywalker behind-the-scenes history video.
+}}
+==See Also==
+*[[Star Wars (partially found David Prowse Darth Vader audio of sci-fi films; 1977-1983)]]
+*[[Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (lost original Darth Vader line from "I am your Father" scene of sci-fi sequel film; 1980)]]
+*[[Star Wars: The Lost Cut (partially found early workprint of "Star Wars: A New Hope" sci-fi film; 1977)]]
+*[[Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (partially lost unreleased Max Rebo Band source music from sci-fi sequel film; 1983)]]
+==References==
+{{reflist}}
 [[Category:Lost audio]]
+[[Category:Lost films]]
 [[Category:Completely lost media]]
 [[Category:Historic]]