A lot of buzz has surrounded a recent post at retroist.com concerning an alleged major spoiler leak made two years before The Empire Strikes Back was released. The article, which we’ve identified as having appeared in the July 24, 1978 issue of The San Francisco Examiner, relays comments made by Dave Prowse (Darth Vader) claiming that the sequel would reveal that Darth Vader is in fact Luke’s father. Actually, it turns out, this little rumor had been dropped several months earlier in a fanzine called Little Shoppe of Horrors #4 (April 1978), which featured an exclusive (and lengthy) Prowse interview (reprint copies can be found on eBay, which is where we picked up ours thanks to a tip from SW bibliographer Bob Miller).
Among the passages of the interview, which, according to the author, were collected between October and December, 1977 (including a public discussion at the Horror Elite Convention in October), were these sentences, which seem to mirror the comments made in the SF Examiner interview:
“In the next film, there is going to be a confrontation between Luke and Darth Vader and they then discover that Darth Vader never killed his father, that Darth Vader IS his father. So son can’t kill father, and father can’t kill son — so Darth Vader lives into the next sequel.”
So, it would appear the original Retroist post title – “Yes, They Did Have Star Wars Spoilers Back in 1978” was almost correct. Actually, they go as far back as October, 1977.
Is this why David Prowse is no longer allowed to attend official Star Wars and other related Lucas Film based events?
Isn’t this just Mr Prowse taking a lucky guess? The script wasn’t even written at this point, Lucas wasn’t sure if he was going to go through with this plot element, and even during shooting Prowse didn’t have those lines.
Well, from an interview I heard featuring Mr. Prowse. I believe he never told the reporter none of the spoilers and that the he fabricated those secrets into the interview from a secret inside man. Dave Prowse would never do such a thing. He confirms it was a lie. In the ForceCast Fandays 2009 special live show, Jason and Jimmy interviewed Mr. Prowse about this and he said he was framed.
Actually, as I recall from a behind the scenes interview included with the episode 5 DVD no one but George Lucas and the Director knew until the scene was shot at which point Mark Hamill and James Earl Jones were told, literally seconds before shooting.
1) Smells fishy to me. David Prowse didn’t even say the lines when they were filming. When Luke says “You killed my father!”, the actual words spoken by David Prowse on set (before James Earl Jones recorded his dialogue) were “No. *Obi-Wan* killed your father.”. In fact, the script Jones had in front of him didn’t even contain the famous line; it was hand written note given to him just before recording. I can’t remember which interview this was, but I know that James Earl Jones said that; thinking it was in one of the specials on A&E or the History Channel.
2) Who really cares anyway?
Well this sounds like a wild guess from Dave because he didn’t know at all that Vader was Luke’s father. He had already been warned about leaking things from the story to the press and he was kept in the dark a lot of times regarding the story because of that. So he probably read it somewhere else because there weren’t that many people who knew that spoiler back then.
I was under the impression that GL and James Earl Jones were the only ones who knew this spoiler and that they even gave fake lines for David Prowse and Mark Hamil to say to each other for the sake of filming.
wow
lol
Secrecy wasn’t as big a deal then as it is now. It’s altogether possible that Lucas told this to Prowse (neither of whom imagined it would be such a cultural touchstone) during the filming/publicity of ANH. Then afterward, once Lucas realized it would be more fun to keep it a surprise, he changed the script to throw everyone off.
Not only did very few people, I’m willing to bet, read this little magazine in 1977, there wasn’t the rush of celebrity gossip like there is now. I’ll bet this rumor was quashed right after David Prowse said it.
this i so stupid i think that they should have shown it and well it really dosent make any sense it seems really not so smart to do this that is all that i have to say.
George lucas James earl jones and hammil and carrie fisher maybe all of hem could have known they just ddnt want to tell us what do you guys and other star wars fans out there have to say.
still awesome that their are still scenes that we have not yet seen out their though. Maybe harrison ford or even peter mayhew would know. Maybe even Gary kurtz or irvin kershener who knows.
I think that buzz is bogus. If you watch bring back star wars, there is an interview with david prowse and he said that he absolutely, did NOT know that vader was lukes father until he saw the movie, he got the outdated script and george lucas updated it after the first few scenes… so either david prowse is actually a mean stubborn idiot or the article is fake…
In 1978-9 I read an article by a Mr Eisenstein? in “Fantastic Films” magazine. The subject was marketing tie-ins & he casually pointed out the continuity problems if Darth Vader turned out to be Luke’s father in the comic books & someone else in a later film. It had already occurred to me & I think others as an interesting possibility, but I don’t recall hearing anything as definite as this interview.
I saw Ep 5 at the 2nd public preview screening in Australia & didn’t KNOW but wondered if Darth would be revealed as Dad. (Film critics had seen it days earlier but didn’t spill the beans).
I regret missing the shock some people describe!
all of what was said was true but a random guess or fact can always start gossip. Darth Vader was Luke’s father but it wasnt until Revenge of The Sith everyone knew how that came to be, Anikan Skywalker (i spelled his name wrong) and Padame or Queen Almadala did serectly get married as it is know to all of you and had to kids but during that time Anakin was under the control of the Chancellor( Emperor Palpatine) and he was dubbed Darth Vader apprentice to the Chancellor. but this wasnt known to thw sw fans until the second star wars came out . now how he knew his information i still ponder on but what he said is true
Like it matters now.
Well, considering that until 1978 when George Lucas wrote the SECOND DRAFT of The Empire Strikes Back Darth Vader was not Luke’s father, and in fact Father Skywalker appeared as a separate character (in fhost form) in the First Draft, no this is not a legit spoiler. It was a guess by Prowse that happened to come true.
Sorry to burst the bubble people, but George Lucas did not have the entire story worked out in 1977 or even in 1999 for that matter. If you really did Star Wars, check out the book “The Secret History of Star Wars”. It is a major revelation.
http://secrethistoryofstarwars.com/
I attended a convention some years ago where Dave Prowse told audiences that shooting the Return Of the Jedi was one of the worst experiences of his life. George Lucas apparentlt believed that Prowse had leaked the information and didn’t speak to him during the entire production!
Spoilers are awful no matter what decade they occur in!
Well Dave Stolte, i’m sorry to say this but. In every movie they do all of the acting early before it goes in movie theaters and George Lucas could of been discussing what they should do for the sequel.
Well Dave Stolte, i’m sorry to say this but. In every movie they do all of the acting early before it goes in movie theaters and George Lucas could of been discussing what they should do for the sequel.
This has to be put into perspective. Back then the public weren’t so inundated with information, nor were they so obsessed with such stuff. The public (mostly kids my age 12 or so) were happy with our action figures and could care less about plot points to a movie being released two years in the future. So, dropping a major plot point would have gone undetected for decades as is the case here.
ALSO, the thing that folks seem TO FORGET is that when Vader uttered that line, NOBODY believed it. Let me make myself perfectly clear here – when Darth Vader told Luke that he was his father, NOBODY believed it. Everybody was confused and the general consensus was that Vader was tricking Luke to join him in the dark side. Not TIME magazine, not Newsweek magazine, not Starlog magazine believed it for a second. These were the major sources of information at the time and all sorts of conspiracies floated around for three years until “Jedi” confirmed that Vader was indeed Luke’s father.
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