In the Star Wars DVD, George Lucas (either in A New Hope’s commentary or the documentary) mentions again that the first film is actually the first act from a three-act screenplay that was too large to fit into one film. And since he was thinking that he’d only ever be able to make the one film, he put the “ultimate weapon” and it’s destruction in it.
How would things have differed, plot-wise, if, like Peter Jackson, he had been guaranteed that three films would get made?
I think he said that the Death Star originally wasn’t going to be in the first act/movie at all, so what would have taken the place of the first film’s second act (resucing the Princess on the Death Star) and third act (attempt to blow up the Death Star)?
I think the Death Star would have been present throughout all three movies - just would not have been destroyed until the third act.
If Lucas had Peter Jackson’s deal, I’m pretty sure he would have gone for a cliffhanger ending of the first and second acts. Maybe at the end of A New Hope, we see Obi Wan, Luke, Leia, Chewie, and Han held prisoner on the Death Star as it turns Alderaan into an asteroid field.
The second movie would end pretty much the same way - there wouldn’t be an ice battle scene, but everything that’s cool about Empire should still be there. Empire, I think, would be book-ended with two fights with Darth Vader - first Vader kills Obi Wan; then Luke escapes from Vader, short five fingernails. Han, of course, doesn’t get so lucky.
And Return of the Jedi would be about the same. Except that the final battle would happen over Tatooine, where the loyalty of Jabba and his army of Jawas would have to be bought with Han Solo.
And ultimately all would be lost because, in the final showdown, one character fails to shoot first:
In the earliest rough draft of the script, Leia’s rescue from the Death Star is the climax of the film. Anniken, Prince Valorum and Leia are trapped in the garbage masher, and death seems certain. On the forest planet below, a tribe of Wookies, led by Han and Chewbacca, rise up against the Imperial occupation and commandeer a fleet of ships. They mount an assault on the Death Star, shutting down the power systems and allowing Anniken & company to escape. The Death Star explodes shortly after the escape, under the combined firepower of the Wookies.
There are plenty of other sub-plots, some of which were discarded entirely, and others which ended up (in dimly recognizable forms) in later (and “earlier”) movies.
Short answer: The Death Star was destroyed in the first Star Wars because Lucas thought it likely that it would be a one-shot deal, and wanted a big climax. If he had a three-picture deal, there would have been more fiddly bits in Star Wars, and the Death Star that got destroyed in Return of the Jedi would have been the Death Star, and not Death Star II.
Whoa, not so fast! Serendipity didn’t write the stories-- you like how they ended up because Lucas is a capable storyteller who did a good job of fitting his ideas to what he had to work with.
Personally, I think they would have been much better if they were done as a three-movie cycle from the start, with primary shooting on all three completed before the release of the first of the first picture.
First off, having two Death Star battles is far from an ideal solution. It’s clearly a weak compromise that leaves large parts of ROTJ feeling like deja vu. Beyond that, the way things played out, Lucas ended up sacrificing some of his best story ideas to the Dark Side of marketing considerations. Like a lot of nerds, I felt bitterly betrayed when he replaced Wookies with Ewoks-- obviously because he had learned what an important part of his revenue merchandising was, and you can sell a lot more plush-toy Ewoks than you could Wookies. Ick.
Also, the last minute decision to keep Lando alive really sucked, even if his death in the attack on Death Star II didn’t test well. In a morality play like the Star Wars trilogy, it is only right that a betrayal as serious as Lando’s should be redeemed by a heroic death. In the first movie, Han’s self-centered amorality is redeemed by his aid in the Battle of Yavin. Lando’s unambiguous betrayal of a hero to the Empire should have a much heavier cost. Like Anniken’s.
I agree that the trilogy would have been better filmed all at once in its original intended story (the little bit of the original that I have learned). It could have never been done with Lucas’ script at the time, though. It was not an established story like LOTR was, and don’t think that any studio would have gambled on the budget to do all three films at the time. That’s why A New Hope had to be made alone and tell a complete story. Lucas did have the foresight make some deals to make sure that he had control of the content of the sequels to ensure that he could continue the story - If ANH came out good.
If the Star Wars trilogy had come out today when the technology that Lucas desired was available, it would have been a run of the mill Sci-Fi story destined for blandness. But then again, our context of Sci-Fi stories was changed May 25, 1977.
Lucas made do with what he had crew-wise (superior crew - how may studios sprang out of that crew?) and budget-wise and he still managed to make three movies that impacted our culture immensely.
Having a second Death Star might not make for good moviemaking, but it seems like pretty sound strategy. A lot of times, when I’m watching a movie or a TV show or whatever, and the bad guys’ ultimate super-plan is foiled, I say to myself, “Why don’t they just do that again? The good guys only won because of a freak stroke of luck – they aren’t going to be able to stop it again!”
Like 2 assaults on Mordor, the first of which doesn’t really finish off Sauron for good?
I think it works very well. The whole series goes to show you how STRONG the empire is. First, the rebels destroy the Death Star. This provides them credibility and a great rallying point, but the Empire can still spank them with their conventional weapons and troops. Then, as the rebels regroup after their rout on Hoth, they learn that their worst fears have come back to haunt them: another Death Star, this one without the flaws.
I like the way it worked out. Now as for Eps 1-3 …
Is that the First/Rough Draft you’re referring to? If so, I guess Lucas decided very early on to only work with the first act to make his movie and my question can’t really have an answer.
Still, despite the logic of having Death Star Mark II (“First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price?”), it does seem repetative to have it detroyed twice in three movies by the relative same method. So I wonder what would have been a good alternative for the third act/Yavin IV battle that would allow the other movies (and heck, even the medal sequence at the end of ANH) to be relatively unchanged?
According to the Star Wars website, Lando’s death is an urban legend.