If you’ve ever watched The Empire Strikes Back and found yourself puzzled by the moment Leia kisses Luke after she told Han she loved him, you’re definitely not alone. That scene has sparked debates for decades. Some people think it’s romantic, others think it’s weird—especially once you know they’re siblings. So, why did they have that kiss?
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It Wasn’t About Romance—Leia Was Grieving, and Luke Needed Comfort
By the time Leia kisses Luke at the end of Empire Strikes Back, both of them had just been through hell. Luke had barely survived his duel with Vader—he’d been beaten down, lost his hand, nearly died hanging off a weather vane, and then had the biggest emotional bomb dropped on him: Darth Vader was his father. When the Falcon rescues him, he’s unconscious and barely clinging to life, physically and emotionally shattered.
Leia wasn’t in much better shape. Han had just been frozen in carbonite and taken by Boba Fett. C-3PO was blasted to pieces. The Rebellion was on the run. She had just gone through back-to-back trauma and was trying to hold it together while being the glue for everyone else. When she walks up to Luke in the medical bay and gives him a kiss, it wasn’t romantic. It was quiet and instinctive—a simple, raw moment of relief and human connection. The kind of gesture that says, “You’re alive. I’m here.”
The kiss itself is brief, with no swelling music or emotional buildup. Leia doesn’t linger or flirt—she walks away immediately. In fact, some fans misremembered it as a forehead or cheek kiss, which shows how subtle and unromantic it felt in the scene. It wasn’t a love triangle moment—it was a collision of two people who had just survived the worst day of their lives, clinging to whatever peace they could find.
The Love Triangle Was Left Open Because Ford Hadn’t Signed for a Third Film
One major reason the romantic tension between Leia, Han, and Luke remained unresolved in The Empire Strikes Back was because Harrison Ford didn’t sign a three-picture deal. While Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher were committed to a trilogy, Ford only agreed to two films. This contractual detail had direct implications for the story, especially Han’s fate at the end of Empire.
Howard Kazanjian, producer of Return of the Jedi, explained this clearly in a 2010 interview:
“Harrison, unlike Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill, signed only a two-picture contract. That is why he was frozen in carbonite in The Empire Strikes Back.”
At the time, George Lucas wasn’t sure Ford would ever return. Kazanjian said:
“When I suggested to George we should bring him back, I distinctly remember him saying that Harrison would never return. I said what if I convinced him to return. George simply replied that we would then write him in to Jedi.”
So, freezing Han in carbonite wasn’t just for dramatic effect—it was a practical move. It gave the filmmakers a clean exit for the character if Ford didn’t come back. That uncertainty meant the writers had to keep the door open for Leia’s romantic arc to go in a different direction, including possibly ending up with Luke.
Kazanjian ended up playing a critical role in bringing Ford back:
“I played a very important part in bringing Harrison back for Return of the Jedi.”
He negotiated the deal directly with Ford’s agent’s son after successfully handling Ford’s Raiders of the Lost Ark contract. So, while Ford did return in the end, the creative team couldn’t count on that during the writing and filming of Empire. That’s why Leia’s kiss with Luke—though mostly emotional—is also part of a larger narrative that hadn’t been locked in yet.
George Lucas Hadn’t Decided They Were Siblings Yet
When The Empire Strikes Back was being written and filmed, George Lucas had not yet decided that Luke and Leia were brother and sister. That plot twist didn’t exist in the original story outline. In fact, Yoda’s line—“No, there is another”—wasn’t referring to Leia at all. According to Wikipedia, the idea of Leia being Luke’s sister wasn’t introduced until the second draft of Return of the Jedi. Before that, the “other” Skywalker was intended to be a new character who would appear in a future trilogy. This explains why Luke and Leia still had romantic tension in Empire—because at the time, they weren’t related.
When George Lucas began developing Return of the Jedi, he made a major change—he turned Leia into Luke’s sister. This wasn’t part of the original plan. Lucas was dealing with burnout and a difficult divorce at the time, and he wanted to finish the trilogy rather than continue with more sequels.
So, Leia being “the other” was a late rewrite. It helped wrap up the story, but it also turned that kiss in Empire into an awkward moment no one saw coming at the time of filming.
In the Late ’70s and Early ’80s, a Kiss on the Lips Didn’t Always Mean Romance
Here’s something important: cultural norms around kissing were different back then. In the 1970s and early 1980s, it wasn’t completely unusual for people to give platonic kisses on the lips. You could see it on popular game shows—hosts like Richard Dawson kissed women on the lips as a greeting. That kind of affectionate gesture didn’t always carry a romantic or sexual meaning.
So, when Leia kissed Luke, it may have landed differently with audiences at the time. It was more about emotional expression than seduction. Today, we’re quicker to label any lip kiss as romantic, but back then it had more nuance.
