The original film had one large-scale space battle that involved all the principle characters it was cleanly told and easy to follow. Everything in the “Star Wars” universe became cuter, cuddlier, and less dangerous, with the contemplative philosophical underpinnings of the previous film replaced with flimsy metaphysical hooey. Lucas found that the original title of the third film, ‘Revenge of the Jedi,’ was too harsh, so he softened that as well. The laws of ‘Return of the Jedi’ weren’t governed by art or common sense or the needs and requirements of the screenplay – the revenue generated from action figures, boxes of novelty cereal and pajamas governed them. The indigenous race that populated the forest moon of Endor was originally conceived as a slithery band of reptilian lizard creatures, which would have served the story well – the evil Empire being brought down by something equally scary and slimy (but fundamentally misunderstood.) Lucas got skittish, though, and changed them to the lovable Ewoks – essentially Native American teddybears, ready to be snapped up and snuggled by countless children the world over. Now that’s entertainment.īy contrast, all accounts suggest that Lucas haunted the set of ‘Return of the Jedi.’ Director Richard Marquand was relatively inexperienced when it came to the film’s complex visual effects, so Lucas hung around and was at the very least a second unit director and at the very worst a legitimate co-director, with Marquand saying in 2005 that the experience was “like trying to direct ‘ King Lear‘ with Shakespeare in the next room.” No, it ends with one hero being incased in a liquid metal ice cube, another character betraying his friends and another getting his hand sliced off by a murderous madman that moments before was revealed as his father. The film doesn’t end with some huge battle sequence, the Rebels taking another hard fought victory from the Empire. They were able to experiment and take chances, which they did, with gleeful abandon. Unlike the original film, which Lucas both wrote and directed, ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ was being handled by a creative team that consisted of director Irvin Kershner and screenwriters Lawrence Kasdan and Leigh Brackett.

The massive amounts of money that the first “Star Wars” had brought in turned him from a filmmaker into a company he had to oversee and manage his own Galactic Empire. When filming began on ‘The Empire Strikes Back,’ Lucas was distracted.

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