I wonder if the intention of the Death Star trench was to mirror some prior anecdotal experience Luke had flying through canyons on Tatooine - that would indirectly equip him to fly in those conditions.
I know none were filmed, but were any Skyhopper scenes (that he references in the deleted Biggs scene) ever considered or planned?
I guess in its absence, we will always have that first level on REBEL ASSAULT - or this thing https://youtu.be/O1NpZxn860M?t=1m10s
None that I’ve ever heard of. Interesting that both the Marvel comic and the radio drama covered similar ground.
If they ever were to do a standalone movie about Luke’s life on Tatooine, this would be a great base for the script.
And that Megaforce clip makes the flying motorcycles in Galactica 1980 look good!
Where were you in '77?
I don’t know if any were planned. The shooting script for A New Hope doesn’t mention the skyhopper being flown, and all of the previously available drafts are drastically different from the final product, so we can’t be certain.
Well, not really – the January 1975 second draft established the basic plot structure, and the August 1975 third draft set up the character dynamics we know (save for Governor Tarkin, who was added as an additional villain in the fourth draft Jan 1976 script).
But I do think it may have been something Lucas talked about with someone at one point, hence the model being created.
Similar to how Luke told Ralph McQuarrie in April 1975 that he was considering having a female protagonist, and McQuarrie drew concept art accordingly for a month until Lucas changed his mind and started thinking about the third draft.
Lucas was extraordinarily good at throwing out interesting ideas in casual conversation – the Holiday Special premise began as an “alien fairy tale” bookend idea he suggested offhand for the first film, and he also considered a scenario where Luke, Han, and Chewie all get captured on the Death Star and rescued by Ben. However, Lucas’ slow methodical style of writing (and his tendency to preserve language from previous drafts whenever possible) meant these never reached a script page. The Skyhopper idea may have been a similar case.
“That Darth Vader, man. Sure does love eating Jedi.”
Don’t forget that during the “it just isn’t fair” scene, Luke first plays with a model, which is in the size of a typical ILM 1976 blow up model, he also goes around a full size prop. Why would they build both a model and a full size prop if they didn’t at least think about shooting some scenes with them?
Have any behind the scenes photos ever turned up that show much of the full size Skyhopper was actually built? We only ever see one angle of it in the finished film.
Where were you in '77?
Thanks for the replies!
ATMachine - I think what you are saying makes alot of sense, essentially something that was potentially conceived, maybe influenced other elements of the story, and then perhaps was dropped (but we still have it’s DNA in the story).
I didn’t want to make the comparison earlier, but had it been executed better, the podracing/space battle parallel would have been similar. It would have been nice to see Luke come up with an instinctive strategy with Biggs based on their experiences in Beggar’s Canyon - as you mentioned Silverwook, it would be really cool to see in a Luke centered Prequel Film.
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Wormie and its Skyhopper. “But I was just going to pick up some power converters”
Han: Hey Lando! You kept your promise, right? Not a scratch?
Lando: Well, what’s left of her isn’t scratched. All the scratched parts got knocked off along the way.
Han (exasperated): Knocked off?!
It seems like it was a missed opportunity to not have young Anakin be a hot shot Skyhopper pilot in TPM.
Where were you in '77?
Interestingly it’s appeared in various other places, like videogames from the acceptable Rogue Squardon titles (I forget if the third included it outside co-op) to the almost unplayable Rebel Assault. On film I think the nonsensical ending to ROTJ SE is the only example. They still producd a whole bunch of toys anyway of course.
It seems like it was a missed opportunity to not have young Anakin be a hot shot Skyhopper pilot in TPM.
If you’re committed to making the Prequels as mediocre as possible, it isn’t.
“That Darth Vader, man. Sure does love eating Jedi.”
I’m pretty sure we get the idea that he has experience flying through canyons and blasting small(?!) targets from dialog without having to see him go through the same motions earlier in the film, especially since The Force is guiding his shot and proving his bravado.
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Interestingly it’s appeared in various other places, like videogames from the acceptable Rogue Squardon titles (I forget if the third included it outside co-op) to the almost unplayable Rebel Assault. On film I think the nonsensical ending to ROTJ SE is the only example. They still producd a whole bunch of toys anyway of course.
I’m surprised Kenner never made one back in the day, as they started making vehicles like the Imperial Troop transporter, which never appeared on screen. Then again, with the exception of the die cast mini, we never got a Y-Wing until the ROTJ line.
Where were you in '77?
It makes you wonder how the film was going to start. I am not aware of the scripts at all so i have no idea what was revised but i could imagine star wars begining without the battle on the tantive and that being woven in a story that was centered around Luke from the get go which was more than likely an option with skyhopper / binocilars looking at the battle and biggs going off to join the rebellion.
I was actually really hoping they would have did this for rogue one to be honest so i think the opportunity to cross over is now gone but looking at rogue one i can see the timeline overlapping in this film with life on tattoine. The ending was reshot so the tantive scene would have been much more different in the original rogue one edit based on the virtual 3D experience game first look.
The Radio adaptation really underlines this not just with the Skyhopper race and (threading the stone needle) but also the space fighter simulator scenes where Luke gets virtually ‘killed’ but told he did better than most of the of the other recruits.
The pod racing scene in TPM is clearly a nod to this.
Interestingly it’s appeared in various other places, like videogames from the acceptable Rogue Squardon titles (I forget if the third included it outside co-op) to the almost unplayable Rebel Assault. On film I think the nonsensical ending to ROTJ SE is the only example. They still producd a whole bunch of toys anyway of course.
I’m surprised Kenner never made one back in the day, as they started making vehicles like the Imperial Troop transporter, which never appeared on screen. Then again, with the exception of the die cast mini, we never got a Y-Wing until the ROTJ line.
Yeah, the skyhopper didn’t see fruition until the Power of the Force line. I ended up with two of them thanks to a flood.
Interestingly it’s appeared in various other places, like videogames from the acceptable Rogue Squardon titles (I forget if the third included it outside co-op) to the almost unplayable Rebel Assault. On film I think the nonsensical ending to ROTJ SE is the only example. They still producd a whole bunch of toys anyway of course.
I’m surprised Kenner never made one back in the day, as they started making vehicles like the Imperial Troop transporter, which never appeared on screen. Then again, with the exception of the die cast mini, we never got a Y-Wing until the ROTJ line.
Yeah, the skyhopper didn’t see fruition until the Power of the Force line. I ended up with two of them thanks to a flood.
Did the flood wash one outta the neighbors house and into yours?
It seems like it was a missed opportunity to not have young Anakin be a hot shot Skyhopper pilot in TPM.
If you’re committed to making the Prequels as mediocre as possible, it isn’t.
well the prequels are worse than twilight so its not like we have a good story to begin with
It seems like it was a missed opportunity to not have young Anakin be a hot shot Skyhopper pilot in TPM.
If you’re committed to making the Prequels as mediocre as possible, it isn’t.
well the prequels are worse than twilight so its not like we have a good story to begin with
I’m pretty sure Lucas said somewhere that the pod race had its origins in an abandoned idea for the first film. Makes sense with Lucas’s love of racing.
Also, doubleofive is spot on with the subtle narrative going on with Luke’s piloting experience on Tatooine naturally transitioning into the trench run.
Kind of annoys me when people make fun of the exhaust port being a weak point when the whole idea is that a normal pilot, even using a computer, would never have made the shot. It wasn’t as glaring an oversight on the Empire’s part as some people try to make it out to be.
Interestingly it’s appeared in various other places, like videogames from the acceptable Rogue Squardon titles (I forget if the third included it outside co-op) to the almost unplayable Rebel Assault. On film I think the nonsensical ending to ROTJ SE is the only example. They still producd a whole bunch of toys anyway of course.
I’m surprised Kenner never made one back in the day, as they started making vehicles like the Imperial Troop transporter, which never appeared on screen. Then again, with the exception of the die cast mini, we never got a Y-Wing until the ROTJ line.
Yeah, the skyhopper didn’t see fruition until the Power of the Force line. I ended up with two of them thanks to a flood.
Did the flood wash one outta the neighbors house and into yours?
No, the local comic store flooded and because I helped with the clean up, I was able to get some of the unsellable items.