CT What if George Lucas stuck with his original idea for Luke's sister?

https://screenrant.com/star-wars-luke-skywalker-sister-leia-retcon/
https://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/luke-leia-related-early-star-wars-script/
https://www.thathashtagshow.com/2019/06/20/star-wars-shocker-leia-wasnt-originally-lukes-sister/




Luke and Leia were not originally supposed to be siblings, and Luke's sister wasn't going to appear until Episode VIII.
I wonder how different the franchise would have been if George would have went that direction instead of the one that he decided to go with.

 

I think the OT worked best as a trilogy, with a beginning, middle and end. I feel like if Lucas had drawn out the arc for six movies, the middle installments would have seemed like filler.
The OT wasn’t written as a TV series.

On that note, such an important character should be introduced long before the end or otherwise teased.

 

Star Wars was self-contained in ANH, then it was retroactively turned into a trilogy. Lucas had originally a draft for 12 episodes, and episode IV wasn't supposed to have the deathstar.

 

I think we have to be careful with how we use the words "original idea", or "this character was supposed to...", or "wasn't going to". They create an idea that there was a single and complete original plan. But the reality is that there is no such thing as one original plan, and that many ideas were considered at various points.

Regarding Luke's sister, this thread is referring to first draft of Empire (there were many other "original plans" for Luke's relatives in the early drafts of Star Wars), combined with a fair amount of guessing about when that "lost sister" was going to appear. As far as I know, there has never been confirmed that the "lost sister" would be the main character of the ST, nor that it would appear in any specific episode.

Those videos are just full of guesses and misleading info presented as "official revelations", in my opinion.

 

For me it was the only thing that could top Vader being Luke's father, it was perfect. The problem is that it was never followed up on because the trilogy ended and wouldn't be brought back for 30 odd years, i hope some smart person at LFL has the sense to do a series post ROTJ that explores Luke and Leia's relationship as the dynamics have now altered, the love triangle is no longer and Leia now has to deal with the revelation her father was a mass murderer who tortured both her and her husband.

 

I'm actually not a fan of the revelation. It kind of shows that he was making it up as he went along.

 

The character of Nelith (Luke's hidden sister) was never fully explored. I think Kurtz has mentioned that she was to be the protagonist of the ST, but based off which idea Lucas had for the ST back in the late seventies... we just don't know. Obviously this idea was dropped before TESB was released because even Lucas has admitted that the, "No, there is another." line was just a hook to make it seem like Luke might die and no more thought was put into it than that.

 

The brother/sister incest plotline would be a lot more apparent.

 

I think it was dropped because GL didn't want to left his story unfinished.(Since he wasn't sure at that time if he ever produces another SW movie after ROTJ.)

 

For me it's hard to say either way.

If episode 8 was closer to the timeline and not the 30 year gap and had the sequel trilogy be where Luke faced off against the Emperor then maybe.

I personally would have preferred a love interest for Luke over a long lost sister. Like a Mara Jade type figure. I just don't think Leia being the sister or finding his long lost sister down the road would have too much of a big difference for me.

 

Having Luke and Leia be siblings was an inspired choice, I'd hate to think of the trilogy with them any other way now.

 

It was certainly what inspired a certain relationship in Game of Thrones.

 

I don't know what would have happened if Lucas had stuck to his original idea for Luke's sister. And I don't know how I would have felt. I just don't know.

 

Maybe Koo Stark was meant be his sister? Didn’t she call him Wormie? My sister used to call me names.

 

According to Leigh Brackett's script, it was an entirely new character named Nellith.

A name that plays on Leia's association with Catholic Marian imagery: with echoes of Lilith from Jewish folklore, as well as Charles II's mistress Nell Gwyn (who once saved herself from a mob angry at one of Charles' Catholic mistresses with the declaration "I am the Protestant whore.")

Of course, if you wanted a name that came from outside Christianity while also carrying connotations of evil, there's always the Buddhist option of "Mara"....

 

Well, it would roughly have been like the Sequel Trilogy with Luke filling the role of Kylo and his sister filling the role of Rey. Lucas did have it in mind for Luke to turn. And in the end she would turn him back as they stood before the Emperor. Disney essentially went with the original idea. And we saw the idea manifest in the Dark Empire comic. Lucas changed it because his personal life was in shambles so he quit to correct it.

 

I like Luke and Leia being siblings. Retrospectively, it does seem to be something GL chose to go with after TESB was made. Unless when Luke called for Leia and she heard him as he was hanging upside down in Bespin, that being an indication they were related? Other than that moment, I can't think of any other indications in ANH or TESB that they were siblings.

 

Me too. Star Wars is a family story at heart and for me the sibling relationship made it so much more endearing. I truly appreciate every familial connection George wove into his films.

 

I don't think Leia hearing Luke is any indication of them being related.
Luke uses the Force to speak to her, why would that power require that she is sister for it to work?
Luke did not know and if that power has that limitation, why would he use it?
Most often when telepaths speak in the minds of others, the telepath is doing the work, the other person is just receiving. Not that the person has to be related to the telepath.

Had Leia picked up Luke without him doing anything, then yes.

Luke had to reach out to people he knew, the droids are out as is Lando, as Luke does not know him. Chewie would look silly, Han is frozen so that leaves Leia.

And Lucas made Leia the sister when he was getting tired of SW and wanted to wrap things up.
The emperor was brought into RotJ and killed off. But the "other" had to be dealt with. And again, there were not many options. Bringing in a new character at this stage would be hard and take time. So it had to be an established one. Making it Wedge or someone like that would again take time.
The droids are again out and Chewie the Jedi would likely look silly. So Han and Leia are about the only possible choices and since Han is older than Luke, it would raise more questions if Han is Luke's older brother.

So Leia became the "other" because she was the only possibility.
Had it been left unresolved, the Lucas would face the questions of when the ST would come out.

Bye for now.
Blackboard Monitor

 

[ QUOTE="CampOfSorgan, post: 56983518, member: 1438544"]I like Luke and Leia being siblings. Retrospectively, it does seem to be something GL chose to go with after TESB was made. Unless when Luke called for Leia and she heard him as he was hanging upside down in Bespin, that being an indication they were related? Other than that moment, I can't think of any other indications in ANH or TESB that they were siblings.[/QUOTE]

It's really weird that at the time (summer 1980) everyone at my school all made the link of Luke and Leia being siblings, may be it was because only minutes before we'd had the revelation about Vader that we're looking for another.

The "Han and Luke" possibility that @Samuel Vimes has just posted is made irrelevant after Han needs to use a tracker to find Luke on Hoth, The fact that GL has stated Luke was always intended to have a sister, never mentioning having a brother, puts that argument to bed.

GL made Leia the sister to tidy up the number of characters, with the reintroduction of Jabba and his gang there wouldn't be the time or space in ROTJ for another brand new main character. We know from various sources including the man himself, GL was already planning ROTJ as early as during the finale of principal photography on TESB. There is even a note in one of the Making of books that has the word sister and it's dated during the making of TESB.

 

I have to be honest. Lucas' decision to make Leia Luke's twin sister never bothered me one way or the other. I wasn't that emotionally invested in that scenario to begin with.

 

so you weren't shipping LeiaLuke in 1982?

 

LOL heck no! Leia didn't need a man. She saved herself.

 

She saved the men...saved Luke, Han and Chewie on DS1, saved Luke on Cloud City, saved the Rebels chances with DS2 after forging the alliance with the Ewoks...

Is Leia actually the most important character in the OT?

 

Leia made Luke. From a certain point of view.