Star Wars: Mark Hamill Confirms Empire Strikes Back Final Scene Was Added Later to Overcome Downbeat Ending

Mark Hamill is dropping some major Star Wars movie tea, by confirming that the final scene of The Empire Strikes Back was changed to make it more hopeful and uplifting than it originally was. Hamill posted photos of the iconic final scene of Empire Strikes Back where C-3PO, R2-D2, an injured Luke Skywalker, and Leia (Carrie Fisher) watch Lando (Billie Dee Williams) and Chewie fly off in the Millennium Falcon to start the mission to save Han Solo. It was in the caption of that post where Mark Hamill confirmed the following: 

"Filmed 4 months after we wrapped principal photography on #ESB, it wasn't a "re-shoot", it was an added scene. Concerned about the downbeat ending & thorough defeat of the protagonists, they wanted to add an uplifting moment of hope & rejuvenation to reassure the audience."

Indeed, Empire Strikes Back remains something of a minor miracle of filmmaking. The middle chapter of The Star Wars Original Trilogy set a news standard for movies with its massive plot twist (Vader being Luke's father) and even more revolutionary: an unhappy ending. Certainly laws of Hollywood filmmaking demand that heroic adventures end on a happy note, with the heroes victorious; Empire took Hamill's Luke Skywalker from being an epic hero to a generation of moviegoers after Star Wars to being maimed, defeated, and emotionally crushed. The next time a protagonist went into a final frame looking that bad, it was Brad Pitt at the end of Se7en!

With that all on the table, it's understandable that George Lucas and Empire Strikes Back director Irvin Kershner went back and added a scene that showed a more uplifting and hopeful moment for the heroes.

 In a weird way, that added scene to the ending of Empire Strikes Back is much more effective for several reasons. First, it helped establish that Empire was just the middling chapter of a story to be continued, establishing a cinematic format that has since been copied by countless other franchise trilogies. Second, in the larger scope of the Star Wars franchise that has come after Empire Strikes Back, that ending resonates with ideas of the Force and faith in the light side of it, even in the darkest of moments. 

As always, it's fun to see the icons of Star Wars let the fandom in deeper to the behind-the-scenes lore of making the franchise what it is. Empire Strikes Back is streaming on Disney+