In 2013, Dark Horse Comics released an illustrated version of George Lucas' original 1974 script
for a space opera called The Star Wars.
The comic books gave series fans a glimpse of how Lucas' original vision evolved into
what we saw on the screen.
Some of the differences are staggering.
In The Star Wars, Luke Skywalker is introduced not as an idealistic young farm boy from Tatooine,
but rather as a grizzled 60-year-old general on the planet Aquilae, one of the few planets
not taken over by the Empire.
He's a Jedi-Bendu, a member of a group of warriors who were once the sworn defenders
of the Emperor.
The group has since defected. and its members are being hunted by the Sith.
Very few Jedi are left, and their numbers are dwindling, just like they are in A New
Hope.
The roles of our heroes shift around a bit in this first draft, which introduces another
Jedi-Bendu by the name of Kane Starkiller.
Kane lives on a desolate moon with his two sons, Deak and Annikin.
While he was born a human, he's mostly cyborg by the time we meet him, left with nothing
but his original head and arm after a life of brutal combat.
After young Deak is killed by a surprise Sith attack, Kane and Annikin flee to Aquilae so
that the brash young Annikin can complete his Jedi-Bendu training with Luke.
Shades of Anakin Skywalker's attitude from Attack of the Clones are apparent here, but
instead of the Jedi braid, Annikin sports a combination of a mullet and a man bun.
It's not any cooler, it's just different.
The villain known as Darth Vader is still imposing in The Star Wars, but he's a lot
better-looking.
While he bears some the scars of the Vader we know, he has one robotic, red eye and a
full head of hair.
In this version, he's a tactical commander of the Empire.
He has no special powers: he's neither Jedi nor Sith.
While he expresses some respect for Dark Side users of the Force, his feelings quickly diminish
when they fail to get him instant results.
This Vader occasionally wears the trademark helmet, but only the top part.
He doesn't need the rest of his suit, after all: this interpretation comes from before
Vader was known to have a burnt-up backstory.
But helmet or no helmet, he still looks like he probably sounds like James Earl Jones.
Princess Leia doesn't play the heroic role here that she assumes in A New Hope.
Instead, she's a college student who needs to be rescued after war breaks out on Aquilae.
Instead of A New Hope's Luke Skywalker, who's a nice, sweet boy, she's retrieved by Annikin
Starkiller, an unlikable jerk who punches her in the face when he needs her to cooperate.
Despite these harsh beginnings, the two eventually fall in love for reasons not even the script
can explain.
When Leia's father is killed, she becomes the queen of Aquilae. and the Empire zeroes
in on her as a target.
Turns out, her planet possesses valuable cloning technology.
To get control of the planet and its lucrative tech, the Empire sets out to capture her and
her siblings.
Like a lot of material from this early script, the name "Valorum" eventually showed up in
the movies, just in a different way.
In The Star Wars, Prince Valorum is a powerful Sith who's called in by the Empire for his
Jedi-hunting expertise.
He's hired to capture the heroes, and though he never quite succeeds, his mask makes him
look pretty badass even when he's failing.
The Darth Vader we got in A New Hope is basically a combination of The Star Wars' Vader and
Valorum.
Originally, neither of those guys were that effective as a villain.
Mix the the two together, though, and the result is iconic.
The R2-D2 we know only speaks in beeps and bloops, but in The Star Wars, he speaks in
full sentences, all while still looking like a walking, talking trash can.
Unlike his Astromech droid friend, C-3PO didn't change much from his first appearances in
The Star Wars.
In a way, that frustrating, snooty protocol droid is one of this sprawling franchise's
biggest constants, and for that, we salute him.
"I do believe they think I am some sort of god."
One of the most dramatic changes from The Star Wars to Star Wars proper is the appearance
of Han Solo's character.
While his original version was still a morally ambiguous scoundrel, he was also an enormous,
green, gilled creature, as opposed to a dashing young Harrison Ford.
An extra complication is that his particular species was originally known for killing Wookiees,
not befriending them, making his eventual partnership with Chewbacca all but impossible
in these early drafts.
Even under his scaly skin, though, Solo seems like pretty much the same guy.
In The Star Wars, Wookiees basically serve the same purpose that the Ewoks do in Return
of the Jedi.
They're still 8-foot-tall killing machines, but they're also very superstitious, like
the Ewoks.
They also live in a society that looks a lot like the Ewoks' village.
In the original story, Annikin Starkiller beats the Wookiee chief in combat and is subsequently
worshipped, a development that's ultimately played for laughs in the movies by C-3PO instead.
It's not too far off from the Wookiee society we eventually learn about in Revenge of the
Sith, and, of course, the Star Wars Holiday Special.
Maybe it would've been cooler if Return of the Jedi took place on Chewbacca's turf, following
an army of Wookiees instead of an Ewok insurrection.
By the end of the script for The Star Wars, Sith Prince Valorum and Jedi-Bendu Annikin
Starkiller actually team up to deal a blow to the Empire, after Valorum decides Vader
is too disloyal to work with.
Interestingly, Valorum has a lot of criticism for Annikin over his love for Princess Leia.
According to Valorum, emotions are a peculiar weakness of the Jedi-Bendu, with such raw
feelings supposedly being unbecoming of a Sith.
As the prequels eventually established, it's supposed to be the Jedi who advocate shunning
one's emotions, while the Sith embrace their feelings to become more powerful.
Ultimately, after the Jedi teach the Wookiees how to fly spaceships, the Death Star fortress
is destroyed, taking Vader with it.
Aquilae is saved, along with Princess Leia and her royal family.
Annikin Starkiller is given the job of being the chief protector of the planet, and the
rest of the galaxy is at peace, with the Star Wars in a cease-fire, at least for now.
Overall, The Star Wars makes for a decent, familiar story which is nonetheless too complicated.
For better and for worse, many of the ideas in Lucas' original script were saved and dispersed
throughout the Star Wars we know today.
Can you really imagine this guy as a Wookiee-eating, scruffy-looking swamp monster?
"Who's scruffy-looking?"