FAQ for
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) More at IMDb Pro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags are used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

The Emperor was played by an uncredited older woman and voiced by British actor Clive Revill. To make the character appear stranger and more unsettling, a chimpanzee's eyes were superimposed over the actress's face by the ILM effects crew.

For the DVD release, a slightly altered version of this scene was shot using Ian McDiarmid, who played the character in Return of the Jedi as well as the three prequel films.

At the time of the original trilogy's release, having seen "Return of the Jedi," it seems obvious that Yoda is speaking about Leia, but there is now some debate.

The debate has arisen because it was assumed by many that the way Obi-Wan had said of Luke "that boy is our last hope" indicated that he did not know of Leia's existence until that moment. However, as we see in Episode III, Obi-Wan not only knew of both twins, but assisted in their birth. It would seem strange that Obi-Wan might have forgotten her, or been unwise to her potential.

Without the prequels, there is no doubt that we, as a viewer, could safely assume Obi-Wan did not know about Leia and Yoda's line "there is another" was a revelation about which he learned more in time to explain to Luke in the next episode. However, as with many plots, the prequels have altered our perceptions.

Creator George Lucas has often stated that the movies are now designed to be viewed in order, 1 to 6. Watching the saga in this order, taking into consideration the Jedi "chosen one" prophecy and the eventual outcome of the story, another option could be that Yoda is actually speaking of Anakin/Vader, and some lingering hope that he may yet fulfil the prophecy. However, this seems a little ambiguous.

One can, and probably should, conclude that Yoda was making reference to Leia, despite Obi-Wan's seeming lack of faith in her. It can be taken as an indication of Obi-Wan being either pessimistic of their chances in light of the time and energy thus far invested in Luke, or of his desire not to involve Leia. But even with all this considered, strictly from a film-making point of view, the line was actually written to make audiences believe there was a chance that Luke might be killed by Vader and to therefore give their duel more tension.

Although the credits list Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan as having written the script, the pair of them did not collaborate on the screenplay.

George Lucas came up with an outline for the movie and assigned Leigh Brackett to write the screenplay. Brackett completed a first draft and then sadly passed away. Unfortunately, the work she had done up to then did not satisfy Lucas, who then hired Lawrence Kasdan, who had only just finished writing an unseen draft of "Raiders of the Lost Ark," to start afresh.

Although all the major story points that take place are of Lucas' conception, the dialogue and character relationships were penned by Kasdan, who later went on to write "Return of the Jedi" with Lucas in much the same fashion. Leigh Brackett is credited because she contractually obliged and turned in a screenplay, even though almost none of her work made it on-screen. Lucas has commented that although being a very gifted writer, Brackett was the wrong choice for a "Star Wars" movie and that she had found writing the initial script a very difficult task. The credit is a reward for her work.

Yes, actually. The short scene where medical droid 2-1B talks to Luke Skywalker while he is getting in his flightsuit was directed by Executive Producer Lucas. He also directed the new Wampa scenes added in the 1997 Special Edition, and the revised scene of Vader's conversation with the Emperor in the most recent edition of the film.

Yes and no. George Lucas said in many interviews from 1977 on that he planned on making a series of Star Wars films, even if the first film was not successful. He would fund the sequels himself, and if forced to, he would shoot them as much smaller, cheaper films. At the time of making Empire, Lucas hadn't decided how many sequels he would make, and according to producer Gary Kurtz, he considered as many as five (this may have been where the rumour of a nine film series began). However, during the strenuous post-production process on The Empire Strikes Back, Lucas decided to finish his saga in one last film, then titled "Revenge of the Jedi."

Yes, it is true, though this inside gag is often misattributed to having occurred in Return of the Jedi during the final space battle. The shoe actually appears during the asteroid field sequence, and can be seen tumbling from the upper left to lower right of frame in the exterior shot immediately following Han's proclamation that he's "going in closer to one of the big ones."