30 years of 'Empire Strikes Back'

Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and Yoda on the swamp planet Dagobah. Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and Yoda on the swamp planet Dagobah. Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close 30 years of 'Empire Strikes Back' 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

It was a task that would make even the most powerful Jedi shake in his robes: Follow the most beloved science fiction film of its time with a sequel just as good if not better.

That still-beloved film was “Star Wars,” aka “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope.” And while hardly a Jedi Master, the Force was certainly strong with director Irvin Kershner when he met the challenge with “Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back.”

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the original release of “Empire” — a sequel to this day many fans and fanboys alike consider the best “Star Wars” film ever made. To celebrate, here are 30 things you might not have known about this beloved follow-up.

• “Star Wars” creator George Lucas insisted on moving the credits to the end of the film as he did in “A New Hope.” The Writers Guild and Directors Guild didn’t approve and tried, but failed, to pull “Empire” from release. They fined Lucas and tried to fine Kershner, but Lucas paid all the fines, totaling nearly $250,000. Lucas subsequently dropped his membership in the Writers Guild, Directors Guild and the Motion Picture Association of America.

• Kershner initially turned down the chance to direct “Empire,” but his agent persuaded him to give it a go.

• Producer Gary Kurtz came up with the title for the film.

• Meet Cliff Clavin, Rebel fighter. Before his role as the annoying mailman on “Cheers,” John Ratzenberger played Major Derlin, a Rebel good guy on the ice planet Hoth.

• Boba Fett, the memorable bounty hunter in “Empire,” actually debuted in an animated short on “The Star Wars Holiday Special” in 1978.

• Another pre-emptive hit from 1978: The first depicted lightsaber duel between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker didn’t happen in “Empire,” but instead in the 1978 “Star Wars” novel “Splinter of the Mind’s Eye.” Vader lost his arm in that battle.

• “Empire” won an Oscar for best sound, plus a special award for visual effects. It was nominated for best art direction-set direction and best original score.

• Lucas spent thousands on an advertising campaign to get Frank Oz an Oscar nod for best supporting actor for his performance/puppet work with Yoda, the gnome-like Jedi Master. The campaign failed.

• The set for the swamp planet Dagobah was elevated to give Oz and other puppeteers room to control the Yoda puppet from below.

• Han Solo was frozen in carbonite in “Empire” partly because it was uncertain Harrison Ford would be back for a third “Star Wars” film. Unlike Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) and Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), Ford refused to be signed for a three-picture deal and even asked Lucas to kill off Han. Lucas refused. Ford returned for 1983’s “Return of the Jedi.”

• In the original “Star Wars” trilogy, the only time Darth Vader and C-3PO share the screen is during the carbon freezing scene. The 1999 prequel, “The Phantom Menace” revealed a young Anakin Skywalker, who would become Vader, actually built C-3PO.

• An early version of Lando Calrissian, the role made famous by Billy Dee Williams, had Lando not as head of Cloud City but instead the clone leader of a clan left over from the Clone Wars, which take place well before “Empire.”

• To maintain the austere interiors of Cloud City, crew constantly mopped and polished the set between takes and everyone wore cushioned shoes.

• Lobot, Lando’s silent aide on Cloud City, gets his name from “lobotomy.” Lobot was supposed to have dialogue but the filmmakers decided he was lobotomized to accommodate the cyborg implant around the back of his head.

• The evil Emperor who made his film debut in “Empire” was actually played by a woman with prosthetic makeup and chimpanzee eyes superimposed in post-production. Clive Revill did the voice in the original release. Ian McDiarmid played the Emperor in “Return of the Jedi” and subsequent films.

• Kershner provided the voice of Darth Vader in the temporary mix of the film before James Earl Jones recorded the final version.

• In the story treatment for “Empire,” Yoda’s full name was Minch Yoda. In the first draft he was known only as Minch. Changed for the better, that did.

• Boba Fett and the rest of the bounty hunters featured in “Empire” are never referred to by their proper names in the film. Boba Fett is only referenced as “bounty hunter.”

• After an extra got sick, Boba Fett actor Jeremy Bulloch was called in to replace the Imperial Guard who escorts Leia and pulls her into the Cloud City elevator when she screams at Luke that he’s entering a trap.

• Actor Michael Sheard played Admiral Ozzel, one of two Imperial officers Darth Vader kills by telekinetic strangulation in “Empire.” Sheard later played Hitler in a small scene in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.”

• Hamill sustained facial scars in a car accident before “Empire” started shooting. It’s long been rumored the scars were explained in the “Star Wars” universe courtesy Luke’s nasty encounter with a wampa ice creature early in the film. Actually, that scene was already in early “Empire” drafts before Hamill’s accident.

• That’s no moon . . . or asteroid. In “Empire’s” dizzying asteroid scene, one of the asteroids is a potato and another is a shoe.

• The entire Millennium Falcon was built life-size for “Empire.” The 23-ton Falcon was 65 feet in diameter and 16 feet high with a mandible giving it an overall length of 80 feet.

• “Empire” used eight R2-D2s. Actor Kenny Baker used two, three were remote controlled and three were dummy versions that could be damaged.

• Hamill had to bang his head on the ceiling of Yoda’s hut 16 times before Kershner was satisfied.

• “Empire” was the first film to have a 5.1 surround sound mix.

• Luke’s home planet Tatooine appears in five of the six “Star Wars” films. Tatooine doesn’t appear in “Empire,” though Luke mentions it at the end of the film.

• “Empire’s” most famous line is often misquoted. Darth Vader does NOT say, “Luke, I am your father.” He actually says, “No, I am your father.”

• Lucas was so intent on keeping that shocking ending a secret he had Vader actor David Prowse say “Obi-Wan killed your father,” only to later dub it with Vader’s bombshell that he was Luke’s father. Only six people knew the true ending: Lucas, Kershner, writers Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, Hamill and Jones.

• Hamill’s wife gave birth to their first son Nathan during the “Empire” shoot. Hamill went straight from the hospital to shooting. That day’s shots had Luke hanging by a weather vane below Cloud City.

Sources: The Internet Movie Database and StarWars.com.