In 1980, after the success of “Star WarsEpisode IV: A New Hope”, George Lucas decides to produce a sequel: “Star Warsepisode V: The Empire strikes back”. Did you know that the filmmaker changed the end of the film a few days after its theatrical release?
Star Warsepisode V : enormous critical and popular success
In 1977, George Lucas decides to embark on a film with excessive ambition. He produces and realizes Star WarsEpisode IV: A New Hope. If the film is now cult, at the time of its release, George Lucas did not think it would be a critical and popular hit. Indeed, for a $11 million budgetthe very first opus of the license Star Wars reports over the years more than $775 million in worldwide box office receipts. An impressive score, especially during its first release, which pushes George Lucas to produce a sequel: Star WarsEpisode V: The Empire Strikes Back.
Tired from the production of the first film, George Lucas prefers to abandon the staging of this sequel. While he retains his screenwriter and producer caps, he entrusts the production of The Empire Strikes Back to Irvin Kershner. George Lucas wants to remain independent, and while the 20th Century Fox, which distributes the film, is seeking to buy out the license rights, he prefers to invest his own fortune in Star Wars V to maintain his artistic freedom.
George Lucas changed the ending of the film
It’s a little-known anecdote of Star WarsEpisode V: The Empire Strikes Backreported by premiere. Shortly after the official release of the feature film (May 21, 1980) but before the national release (June 18, 1980), Tom Smith, CEO of Industrial Light & Magic (the box that takes care of the special effects of the film) receives a phone call from George Lucas. The latter tells him that he needs more plans for the new Star Wars. Tom Smith jumps up from his chair, and doesn’t really understand George Lucas’ request, especially now that the film is already airing in a hundred American cinemas.
George Lucas wants to add some shots on the conclusion of The Empire Strikes Back. According to him, “the end of the film is not clear” and viewers struggle to fully understand the characters’ geographic location. Still according to the filmmaker, the first cut of The Empire Strikes Back implied that the characters of the film: Leïa, R2-D2, C3-PO and Luke (and his new hand) on one side and Lando and Chewbacca on the other, were all aboard the Millennium Falcon. Which is not the case. Only the last two took Han Solo’s ship to search for him.
So George Lucas wants to fix that, by adding three small plans quite simple to design. The first establishes more precisely the situation of the rebel fleet; the second places himself in the Millennium Falcon to explain that Lando and Chewbacca are going their own way; and finally the third to better understand that Luke and Leia are inside a medical frigate.
George Lucas therefore brings together a limited team, notably composed of cameraman Ken Ralston and future director Joe Johnston to shoot these three additional shots. No actor takes part in these reshoot. Only mock-ups were used to produce these sequences. The trio shoots the said sequences and sends them to Industrial Light & Magic to add the special effects. In just two weeks, Industrial Light & Magic produces the special effects commissioned by George Lucas, and these three shots are added to the feature film. A decision, according to Tom Smith, which Irvin Kershner never had a say in.As for the original version of the film without these three additional shots, hard to know if it still exists somewhere…
