- There’s a lot more exposition about the state of the Galaxy. There’s a scene where a Rebel commander explains that after the Death Star was destroyed, many systems joined the Rebellion, but the Imperial navy is still very powerful, and is currently spread thin around the Galaxy pursuing rebel cells. This kind of exposition is missing in the final version, requiring us to infer these background details ourselves. (Also the final version seems to imply Echo Base is the only rebel base.)
I do like that the idea of knowing more about what occurred in the galaxy after the Death Star was destroyed. But for some reason, probably Kershner’s skill as a director and keeping the tension and stakes high, the focus on Hoth does leave us thinking this could well be most, if not all, of the rebels.
I wish they made a comic adaptation of this draft like they did of the rough draft of ANH (“The Star Wars”).
“The Star Wars” sold very well and generated a lot of interest and publicity at the time. So it is very surprising they didn’t follow it up with a version for this draft script too. Most unlike Lucasfilm under Disney.
I’d still love to see it done, even today.
It is such a pity we did not get to her 2nd draft and a polish, that she was contracted to do for the Empire script. Before the cancer took her, just weeks after she turned that first draft in to George.
Yeah, it’d fascinating to have seen how the draft script would have developed in Leigh Brackett’s 2nd draft in a “what if?” way.
Personally I really like the the original backstory idea for Lando Calrissian being one of the last few clones still around after the Clone Wars.