CT Prior to ESB's release, was there anybody who suspected that Vader was Luke's father?

I never saw it coming either - in fact, even after ESB I felt that Vader may have been lying to Luke in order to get him to turn over to the dark side. It honestly wasn't until ROTJ (the scene when Luke asked Yoda if Vader was his father & Yoda confirmed this), that I really believed it to be true.

 

What was your reaction when ROTJ confirmed it?

 

What I hadn't realized until visiting the link above was that it was known beforehand that Empire Strikes Back would be Episode V.

 

I was ten years old when Empire came out. I read the novel that weekend before seeing the movie (at a rapid pace...I think I read it twice that weekend lol). So, I knew going in and was still blown away at how well the reveal was done on screen.

 

Can't actually remember how I felt when I first heard this in 1980. Sure I didn't see it coming at all.
But I took Vader's reveal as the truth ("Search your feelings, you will know it to be true").

That's what really triggered my fascination for the series, and made me crave for the prequels as soon as 1983.

 

I began craving the prequels right after my first viewing of ESB in 1980 - my cousin and her boyfriend took me to see it the day before my birthday, and my cousin's boyfriend told me on the way home that after the next film, they'd be making a series about Ben Kenobi, Yoda and Darth Vader. They were the characters that interested me the most at the time, ROTJ could wait.

In hindsight, if they'd done the PT after ESB and before ROTJ, it still might have worked - and maybe even better.

 

So you didn't really care about what would happen to Han Solo, whether Vader's was indeed Luke's father or not, and how the OT story would wrap up ?

Wasn't aware of the whole 9 movie plan at the time of ESB. Actually, Star Wars gradually faded away from my mind some time after. It suddenly resurfaced just before ROTJ with magazine covers and media buzz. Then I became aware of the saga plan.

To me, ROTJ made a good job in teasing more for the prequels, with those strong scenes/lines dealing with Obi-Wan-Vader's past and Mother Skywalker (Obi-Wan/Luke Dagobah, Vader/Luke Endor, Luke and Leia Endor).

 

Of course - but I was looking forward to 'The Clone Wars' (which I imagined Ep I would be called) coming in 1986, far more than ROTJ coming in 1983. Besides, I did think Vader was Luke's father after seeing ESB, so I figured the PT films would cover that even more than ROTJ.

The funny thing is, once the OT would up, apparently there was far more interest in Eps VII-IX than the PT, until GL started putting the dampeners on it ever happening. He always stressed that the PT would be made first, as he had a storyline thought out, while the ST was a far vaguer notion in his own mind.
I always felt, as I imagine most did, that GL decided he was done with SW after ROTJ, then changed his mind and picked it up again in the early 1990s for both financial reasons and the fact that CGI made it possible. If you read his quotes from the late 1980s, however, it becomes apparent that he always did want to do the PT one day, he just needed a break from SW, plus his divorce in 1983 had severely depleted his financial power.
The ST, however - most likely a vague afterthought relating back to redundant ideas from his earlier 12-film 'serial' vision, which became less and less relevant as he began focusing on the tragic figure of Anakin Skywalker. I'm still surprised they're making it, and I don't buy for a second that it'll resemble what he had in mind in 1979 when he first brought it up.

 

Total Fiilm May 2008 - Lucas : " I've left pretty explicit instructions for there not to be anymore features. There will definitely be no Episodes VII-IX. That's because there is no any story."
November 2012 - Lucas : " Well, I only told you that I won't do them myself...Nothing more."

Don't we all remember that...

Probably not, as vague as it always was from Lucas' interviews of the era.

The PT itself underwent some alterations between original conception and actual screenplays in the 90's. Even if the basic plot comes from those "recently emerged" ST notes by Lucas, as we've been told, it's likely there would be some modifications from what he had loosely envisioned in 1979 anyway.

I'm only interested to see if it will be stylistically closer to the OT, as production and media have leaked so far.