The original Star Wars went through so many iterations before it became the beloved movie we all know today. As Chewbacca, actor Peter Mayhew of course was given the different version of the scripts the movie went through, and now he’s posting pages of the script on Twitter every day in the lead-up to currently rather nebulous announcement.
Whatever he’s announcing is unknown, but in all honestly pales in intrigue to getting to look at one of the earliest incarnations of Star Wars, and seeing the differences between it and what ultimately ended up on screen.
Starting today I’ll post a few pages from my original @StarWars script each day leading up to a big announcement. pic.twitter.com/ReXI4hyQo1
— Peter Mayhew (@TheWookieeRoars) February 17, 2016
You’ll note the title, The Adventures of Luke Starkiller, as taken from the “Journal of the Whills.” This was a bizarre framing device Lucas once wanted for the film, that somehow someone on Earth had found a mysterious alien journal, which would link the movie to the real world. Other than that, though, the first few pages of the script tread a fine, uncanny line between being close enough to what we know from the first Star Wars and a sense of unfamiliarity. The familiar beats that would eventually become A New Hope are there — but not quite yet fully formed.
The script is not as far out there as some of the earliest iterations of the story, where “Annikin Starkiller” was the hero and there were legendary “Jedi-Bendu” warriors, but there’s enough differences that it’s not the Star Wars we all know and love. It’s a fascinating window into what might have been.