Star Wars is undoubtedly one of the biggest franchises in the world today, and despite some tumultuous years following Disney’s acquisition of the franchise, Star Wars movies and TV shows have really only continued to grow. However, when George Lucas started the process of creating Star Wars, it was far from a slam dunk. Maybe original trilogy actors, including Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, and Harrison Ford themselves, have spoken about everyone’s uncertainty that the movie would ever become anything more, much less an industry defining franchise that has now gone on nearly 50 years.
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Many Star Wars fans also know that Lucas’ original plans for the franchise looked quite different, down to Luke initially being Starkiller rather than Skywalker and lightsabers originally being called laser swords. Yet, far fewer people know about Lucas’ 13-page treatment, titled “The Star Wars,” which proves just how significantly his ideas changed before his brainchild hit the big screen with A New Hope (then just called Star Wars) in 1977. In fact, this 13-page treatment makes it shocking that Star Wars exists today at all.
George Lucas’ Plan Included “Aura Spice”
In Star Wars today, there is legitimately something called spice, which is effectively the franchise’s version of drugs. This has now been featured in myriad Star Wars projects, as has the concept of a “spice runner,” which is equivalent to real-life drug dealings as well. In Lucas’ 13-page treatment, he does reference spice, although in this very early draft, it is called “aura spice”—which is particularly funny given how the term “aura” has developed over the last 50 years and is currently being used, particularly with younger generations (basically similar to “rizz”).
In the treatment, an unnamed “rebel princess,” clearly an early version of Princess Leia, is being guarded by Luke Skywalker because she and her family are being pursued by the Empire while they are transporting “two hundred pounds of the greatly treasured ‘aura spice.’” Particularly notable is how different it is from the early scenes of A New Hope, in which Leia’s ship is being pursued because she has the plans to the Death Star. Clearly, this early on, the concept of the Death Star and seemingly even the truly evil nature of the Empire was not yet created.
A Rebel Band Of Teen Boys Was Going To Attack The Empire
One aspect of this 12-page treatment that has no connection to the final story of A New Hope is the group of 10 teenage boys who fight the Empire. This is perhaps the strangest part of the entire treatment, and it has some of the worst lines in these pages overall. Among them is the explanation that “…they discover a rebel band of ten boys (aged 15 to 18) who are planning an attack on one of the Imperial outposts.” While that sounds akin to something one might see in Star Wars, the writing becomes almost nonsensical from there.
One line reads, “They all stop laughing, but the laughing continues,” and another says, “Into the sanctuary ambles Skywalker, scratching himself, amused at the idealism of the youths.” This same section refers to Luke as “a real general, a real man.” Perhaps the strangest line of the entire treatment, however, is, “The murky little den is filled with a startling array of weird and erotic Aliens laughing and drinking at the bar.” Obviously, this is quite a long way from the original trilogy movies audiences eventually saw on screen—which are still considered among Star Wars’ best movies today.
Audiences (And Lucas) Are Lucky Star Wars Exists Today
As much backlash as Disney gets today for “ruining” Star Wars, this 13-page treatment is frankly a sobering reminder of just how lucky audiences and Lucas are that Star Wars was picked up at all. Yes, rough drafts are always going to be rough, but this treatment comprises a host of really bizarre ideas, and the writing is clearly in need of some serious brushing up. This also makes it clear that the story of A New Hope took some time to develop, and that is really what made the movies so successful.
Following this treatment came the Force, the lore of the Jedi, the establishment of how hideously evil the Empire was, and so much more. It of course worked out in the end, and the original trilogy is now hailed as some of the greatest movies of all time, but these ideas are nevertheless proof that even great ideas have to start somewhere—and, in George Lucas’ case, they started rather far from a cinematic masterpiece.
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