It’s May, which means it’s Star Wars month and a celebration. This year it’s the 40th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back and StarWars.com are posting articles all month long looking back to 1980 and Episode V. Our pal James Floyd is up next with a look at some little known facts about Empire, including this snow-swept zinger.
What’s in a name?
In the early screenplay drafted by Leigh Brackett for The Empire Strikes Back, the ice planet wasn’t called Hoth, but the cloud planet that became Bespin was. “I think the names means ‘cloud’” Han remarks in the screenplay. There on the cloud city, Han and Leia (who is using the alias Ethania Eredith to keep her real identity hidden) meet with Han’s old friend, Lando Kadar, who then introduces them to his old friend, Bahiri, chief of the White Bird clan of the Cloud People. Later, Vader comes to Hoth and when stormtroopers kills Bahiri, Lando decides to switch sides and join the heroes. When Luke and the Millennium Falcon flee the cloud world, the rebels find sanctuary on Bespin Kaalida, a jewel-like planet. The second draft screenplay, written by George Lucas, changed the ice planet to Hoth, the cloud planet to Bespin, Lando Kadar to Lando Calrissian, and cut the Bahiri subplot.
Stay tuned to the official site for more celebratory coverage of Empire.
