Whew! Lots of good stuff brought up here. There’s a lot I’d like to add/respond to, but foremost:
I think Michael Kaminski’s hypothesis is incorrect. He made a decent guess but I don’t believe that’s actually what happened, mostly because there’s evidence that Lucas was considering the twist before he’d written the second draft.
The April 1978 issue of Future Life magazine has a news item explaining that Leigh Brackett had been hired to write the script, and moreover that the production was considering a possible storyline in which Darth Vader turns out to be Luke Skywalker’s father.
Curiously, Kaminski actually does bring this up in his book, but he surmises that both the first and second drafts must have been leaked. I don’t believe this is the case, because:
- The second draft would not have been written yet - it’s dated April 1, 1978, while the April issue of this magazine would have already been on sale by March.
- Lucas wrote the 2nd draft himself in the first place because Leigh Brackett had died mere weeks (March 18) after submitting hers (Feb 17), and surely the magazine would have mentioned this if it’d happened before press time.
- The magazine clearly has no clue what a scoop they’ve landed, or that they’ve even uncovered a plot twist.
- The copy goes into details of Vader’s past that aren’t covered by the movie at all, in script or film form.
- The twist was not included in the official typed version of the second draft. It was only in Lucas’s personal handwritten copy that not even 20th Century Fox got to see (scans at bottom).
The magazine would’ve had to have gotten this info from someone behind the scenes who’d gotten wind of what ol’ George was planning (Future Life was a spinoff of Starlog, who indeed had genuine sources), and as we see now with Marcia’s anecdote she confirms he’d been discussing the storyline with colleagues. This supports that the idea of making Darth Vader Luke’s father was being considered at least before the first draft was complete.
