A variety of early “Star Wars” sketches and concepts leaked into later movies. The title Starkiller was finally utilized to the Starkiller Base in “The Force Awakens.” One may even see parallels in small particulars. For occasion, the unique title of “Return of the Jedi” was “Revenge of the Jedi.” That title was considerably repurposed within the mid-’00s for “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.”
There would not appear to be any motive to have made Luke male, so the change should stay unexplained. Perhaps George Lucas merely needed Luke to resemble himself as a younger man. Perhaps he needed to provide a romantic curiosity to his lead character, and felt a brand new character — a princess in misery — was extra applicable for his story; when Luke was feminine there wasn’t but a Princess Leia within the script. Whatever the explanation, Annakin Starkiller turned a male, then was in the end changed into the Luke Skywalker we all know at present.
Other sketches from the identical uncovered trove reveal just a few different notable modifications. Darth Vader’s helmet, as an example, as soon as left his eyes seen. The respirator on his face was additionally elongated, maybe to extra carefully resemble a fuel masks.
An early storyboard additionally confirmed that Obi-Wan Kenobi, the “old sage” character performed by Sir Alec Guinness, was initially meant to outlive his lightsaber confrontation with the villainous Darth Vader. It appears that he was going to rejoin the motion and proceed to provide recommendation to Luke for the remainder of the film. One can argue whether or not or not this could have made “Star Wars” higher or worse.
Given the tinkering finished within the mid-’70s, it appears that evidently we might have had any variety of “Star Wars” films. Let’s hope we acquired the perfect one.