Lucas Completes Empire Strikes Back First Draft | Today in Star Wars History (Nov. 28)

Today in Star Wars history, George Lucas completes the first draft of The Empire Strikes Back.

On November 28th, 1977, merely six months after the release of the original Star Wars, George Lucas finishes putting pen to paper on the much-anticipated sequel.

Just like the final film, this treatment of Empire opens on a snowy world, where Luke Skywalker is attacked by a “giant snow creature.”

Lucas conceives this story point as a way of helping explain Mark Hamill’s facial scarring, following a car accident in January of that year.

He later hires science fiction writer Leigh Brackett to pen the screenplay adaptation, which ends in absolute disaster. But that’s a story for another time...