Maybe we think that Star Wars was destined to be a success. Yet, George Lucas was not so sure.
He even planned a low-budget sequel called Splinter of the Mind’s Eye in case A New Hope flopped. Read on to find out more about this backup project.
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The Backup Project
Lucas’s backup project was based on the book Splinter of the Mind’s Eye by Alan Dean Foster. This book came out in 1978 and served as a sequel to A New Hope, which Foster had also ghostwritten the novelization.
The story centers on Luke and Leia’s journey to the planet Mimban where they encounter Darth Vader.
Foster’s two-part book deal came with the condition that this second story “had to be filmable on a low budget.” This condition was meant to serve as a rescue plan if A New Hope floundered.
So, Foster kept to a fairly simple story and even cut out an opening battle to keep potential filming costs down.
If we had seen this movie, instead of the bigger-budget Empire Strikes Back, we would have had some key changes.
Han and Chewie would not have been in it, and Luke and Leia would have a romantic relationship. We had some confusion over whether the two of them would be involved this way in Empire Strikes Back.
Yet, Luke and Leia’s “mutual romantic feelings for each other” were front and center in Splinter.
This other sequel would have steered Star Wars on a new course. Some articles think that this backup project “would have been the end of the franchise” and, “as a sequel, it simply wouldn’t have worked.”
That may be so, but could it have worked as a follow-up to A New Hope?
Could Splinter of the Mind’s Eye Have Worked as a Sequel?
Several fans here indicated that the book that was the basis for Lucas’s film project had “a number of concepts” that would come out later in Star Wars, such as Kyber crystals.
Many others recall how they read the book as a child some 40 years ago. The book gets praise as does the author, which provides a sense that maybe a film could have worked even with a low budget.
The action and plot are there but more miniaturized, with the story following Luke and Leia’s search for the Kyber crystal on a swampy Dagobah-like planet.
As this recent article reminds us, they “encounter various predicaments” that could have been appealing and very Star Warsesque like “a particularly aggressive Wandrella” or giant worm creature.
And, Luke and Leia battle with Vader, with the latter losing his arm. We also have R2-D2 and C-3PO and a character named Halla who resembles Maz from The Force Awakens.
These elements start to sound like a true Star Wars tale of adventure.
Yet, Vader may have died after falling into a pit in the book that would have been a movie. The story also focused on one planet, reducing the galactic scale of Star Wars.
So, we would lose many parts of the saga, including main characters like Han and Chewie.
Splinter and Empire Strikes Back
Given the resounding success of The Empire Strikes Back, arguably the best film of the entire franchise, we are better off with the sequel we got back in 1980.
However, Splinter of the Mind’s Eye is not so empty as a backup plan after all, especially given its low budget limitations.