So film historian (and maker of an original trilogy doc, I think - definitely heard his name before) Jamie Benning has been tweeting about our mysterious lava man today, saying it’s been 40 years today since it was filmed before quickly being abandoned. Here’s the initial tweet, and I’l copy and paste from another below:
https://twitter.com/jamieswb/status/1485939204391587845?s=20
“For the role, stunt coord Peter Diamond was dressed in a racing driver’s jumpsuit rigged up with a plethora of
lighbulbs and plugged into the electricity supply. The suit and the glow of the bulbs made it difficult for him to manouevre.”Here is some concept art somebody found:
I don’t have the sources for these but they seem accurate to me.
Great find. Here’s some further information I just found from searching your image. The image is included here too.
Interview with Peter Diamond.
Interviewer: What’s the most dangerous stunt you yourself performed in a Star Wars film? How about the most dangerous stunt by anyone on your team on a Star Wars film?
Peter Diamond: My most dangerous stunt wasn’t even in the Return of the Jedi final cut – Jabba’s palace, I was dressed as a “Lightman.” I had over 100 electric bulbs attached to my body and had to walk across set. The heat was unbearable and I always had the problem of tripping up over the many wires attached to me as I could not see. The most dangerous stunt by any crew was in Return of the Jedi – the double for Han Solo fell off of Jabba’s barge and his harness snapped breaking his legs as he fell into the pit.
And to follow up he also said …
All I can say is that I remember wearing a racing drivers jumpsuit, getting covered in hundreds of tiny light bulbs and plugged into the electricity supply. I had my face covered in them too so I didn’t need special creature make-up because the glow blocked out my face. I was then told to walk past the camera as it pans around Jabba’s palace which I found very difficult to do because of the heat and the cables hanging off the back of me.
Source: https://starwarz.com/tbone/inside-jabbas-palace/
So many great tidbits here on the behind the scenes at Jabba’s Palace.