Guess which other 'Star Wars' movie had wild alternate endings? 'Star Wars'

  25 March 2017    Read: 1822
Guess which other 'Star Wars' movie had wild alternate endings? 'Star Wars'
Had enough of alternate endings to Rogue One? Then you may want to check out the far superior alternate endings for its sequel — a little movie now known as Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

The Rogue One endings have been arriving thick and fast over the last week or so, thanks largely to the release of the Star Wars standalone movie in digital formats this Friday. We've learned that Jyn Erso might have survived in an escape pod or by being frozen in carbonite; that Orson Krennic may have survived the Death Star's attack on Scarif only to be killed by Darth Vader; that K-2SO originally died on Scarif's tropical beaches.

With the exception of the droid's demise, it seems, none of these were actually filmed. Which means the definition of "alternate ending" has now stretched far back into the script and treatment-writing process.

If that's the case, then the early scripts and treatments for the original Star Wars count as alternate endings too — and given that George Lucas wrote drastically different versions of the movie while he was trying to figure out his entire universe, they're much more interesting to consider.

Here's a full list of the ways Star Wars ended in each version:

1. General Luke Skywalker rescues a Princess — or goddess? — from Alderaan



In April 1973, after abandoning a few pages of scribbles on "the story of Mace Windy [sic], a revered Jedi", Lucas completed his first full treatment for a movie he called "The Star Wars."

The short but complex story stars a gruff old military man named General Luke Skywalker, who is trying to help an unnamed princess cross territory controlled by an evil galactic Empire. In this respect it mirrored the story of Hidden Fortress by Lucas' favorite director, Akira Kurosawa.

The princess is captured on the "forbidden planet of Yavin," and taken to the planet of Alderaan — which in this version is the capital of the Empire. Skywalker busts her out of prison on Alderaan with the help of a bunch of teenage Lost Boy types they met on their travels; he's trained the boys to fly "one-man devil fighters."

In the end, the Princess returns to her homeworld, which throws a parade for her, Skywalker and the boys. A couple of hapless Imperial bureaucrats, who were captured early on and observed the whole adventure, "see the Princess revealed as her true goddess-like self."

It may not have been as big a hit as the final version of Star Wars — but if there was ever an actress born to portray a princess who turns out to be a goddess, it was Carrie Fisher.

2. Imperial 'Space Fortress' attacked by Wookiees




The story changed drastically in Lucas' first full script, a dense and wordy affair. It starred a young hothead named Annikin [sic] Starkiller alongside his mentor, General Luke Skywalker. The Princess gets a name, Leia, and a father named King Kayos. A green-skinned alien named Han Solo joins the action.

Leia's world is attacked by the Empire's "Space Fortress," which doesn't yet have a name. Two Imperial droids named "ArTwo Deeto" and "SeeThreepio" jettison from the Fortress in an escape pod and run into our heroes. The ensemble finds its way offworld and makes an emergency landing on the planet Yavin — which is populated by Wookiees (spelled "Wookees" in this script.)

Once again the Princess gets captured. She's taken to the Fortress. Skywalker trains the Wookiees to attack the Fortress in one-man fighters; they destroy it. Annikin rescues Leia from the Fortress just in time, and they escape via a garbage masher. At the end, Leia is crowned Queen of her liberated homeworld.

Imagine the Death Star trench run with Wookiees growling at each other from their X-Wings, and you begin to get a sense of just how weird this ending could have been.

3. Threepio destroys a 'spiritual' Death Star




Lucas' second-draft screenplay — now titled "Adventures of the Starkiller Episode I: The Star Wars" — gets somewhat closer to the Star Wars we know and love. But it's still very weird.

In this version, Threepio and Artoo are sent to find Luke Starkiller on a desert planet. They're carrying instructions from Luke's brother (!) to take a mystical "kiber crystal" to their father, a legendary Jedi known only as The Starkiller. Luke heads off on that journey with Chewbacca and Han Solo — a brash, bearded cabin boy who steals a ship from his boss, Jabba the Hutt.

They find the Starkiller and a band of rebels on the forest moon of Yavin IV, but not before they encounter a moon-sized Imperial space station now (finally!) called the Death Star. But it isn't the technological terror we love to hate: the Death Star is "spiritually powered" by the Dark Side, here called "the Bogan Force."

On Yavin IV, the Rebels realize that the Death Star can be destroyed via a "small thermal exhaust port" — and they didn't even need to steal any plans to figure that one out.

Luke joins the Rebel starships attacking the Death Star — bringing both Artoo and Threepio along for the ride in a fighter called Banta Two. TIE fighters led by Darth Vader (strangely absent from the rest of the script) almost destroy the Rebels.

Han and Chewbacca's pirate ship arrive in the nick of time — but Vader manages to destroy Han's ship, and the crew has to jump into escape pods. Meanwhile, it isn't Luke who gets to fire the fatal shot into the Death Star's exhaust port. It's Threepio, who's sitting in the fighter's gun turret.

There's no medal ceremony back on Yavin IV, just a hearty congratulations from the Starkiller. And alone among Star Wars screenplays, this one has a closing crawl — a teaser for what was supposed to be the next movie, "The Princess of Ondos."

So on the one hand, yay droids. On the other — WTF?

4. Everyone gets a medal — even Chewie!



By the time he churned out the third draft screenplay in August 1975, Lucas had finally settled on his main characters. Instead of his dad, young Luke Starkiller found a twinkle-eyed old Jedi named Ben Kenobi. (Ben wasn't yet called "Obi-Wan" in a past life, and he also wasn't fully human — he was part cyborg.)

The gang go off to save Princess Leia, who is back to being held prisoner on the Imperial capital of Alderaan. Almost everything we think of happening on the Death Star — Ben's duel with Vader included — happens in a prison on Alderaan. Lucas later destroyed Alderaan and moved these scenes to the Death Star itself because of budget cuts ordered by 20th Century Fox.

The end happens pretty much the way we remember it, with some surprising differences. Grand Moff Tarkin is a rebel leader, not an Imperial governor. Luke carries a glowing blue kiber crystal when he attacks the Death Star in his ship, which is not yet called an X-wing fighter.

Oh yeah, and Ben Kenobi survives the movie; he stands with Princess Leia in the Yavin IV throne room as she gives medals to everyone involved in the attack. That's right, everyone — even Chewbacca and the droids. Here's how the screenplay describes the final moments:

Old Ben is sitting to the right of the Princess, while Tarkin sits on her left. Leia is dressed in a long, white dress and is staggeringly beautiful. She rises and places a gold medallion around Han's neck, then repeats the ceremony with Chewbacca, the robots and finally Luke.

The fourth and final draft of Star Wars turned Tarkin into an Imperial and placed him aboard the Death Star. It didn't kill off Kenobi until Lucas altered the script at the very last minute, during shooting. But perhaps most egregiously, it only handed out medals to its human heroes.

Don't worry, Chewie. You'll get your reward someday.

/Mashable/

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