Today, the moment when Darth Vader tells Luke Skywalker “I am your father” is probably the most famous twist in movie history. But what makes that scene even more fascinating is that Mark Hamill himself didn’t know the truth at first either.
When The Empire Strikes Back was being filmed, the production was extremely careful about keeping the secret from leaking.
The Line On Set Was Completely Different
During filming of the Cloud City duel, the line in the script wasn’t the one we all know today. Instead, the line Darth Vader said was:
“You don’t know the truth. Obi-Wan killed your father.”
That was the version used on set, and most of the cast and crew believed that was the real twist of the movie. Even David Prowse, the actor inside the Darth Vader costume, delivered that version during filming.
For Mark Hamill, that already felt like a huge revelation. Up to that point, the story had always been that Vader murdered Luke’s father, so the idea that Obi-Wan might actually be responsible was already shocking.
But that wasn’t the real twist.
The Real Secret Was Only Told to a Few People
The actual line, the one we hear in the finished film, was known by only a handful of people.
According to Mark Hamill, the only people who knew the truth during production were George Lucas, director Irvin Kershner, and Hamill himself.
At one point during filming, Kershner quietly pulled Hamill aside and told him the real version of the line. Darth Vader wasn’t accusing Obi-Wan of killing Luke’s father.
Hamill shared: “But as much as I enjoyed leaking false information, it was a wonderfully hard secret to keep because (Irvin) Kershner, the director, brought me aside and said “Now I know this, and George knows this, and now you’re going to know this, but if you tell anybody, and that means Carrie or Harrison, or anybody, we’re going to know who it is because we know who knows.””
He was Luke’s father.
Hamill later said he was completely stunned when he heard it. And once he knew the truth, he had to keep the secret for more than a year before the film finally released in 1980.
