Luke And Leia Were Lovers? Here’s The Proof

So why the hell was Luke making out with Leia in The Empire Strikes Back only to find out they were brother and sister in Return of the Jedi?

Simple: according to TheForce.net, Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz revealed Leia wasn’t originally meant to be Luke Skywalker’s sister at all.

Incidentally, this is why Yoda’s famous line of dialogue in The Empire Strikes Back–that “there is another” hope for the galaxy–is so ambiguous.

Kurtz clarified that The Empire Strikes Back film we got deviated very little from its final screenplay.

However, the original plans for Return of the Jedi (this third Star Wars film was originally titled Revenge of the Jedi) were very different from the final film. Luke and Leia weren’t supposed to be related (rendering that makeout scene in the previous film and Luke’s general lusting over Leia far less creepy). 

How was the original Star Wars trilogy meant to wrap up? According to Gary Kurtz, Return of the Jedi was going to be a far more melancholy film.

Han Solo was going to die and Luke was going to lead a solitary life after confronting Vader (ironically enough, the Luke we see in The Last Jedi is an echo of this original idea).

Most notably, Leia was going to become the “Queen of her people,” but this road would be just as lonely because Luke had wandered off and Han was now dead.

Does that mean the original Star Wars planning didn’t include any Skywalker siblings? Not exactly.

Kurtz said that even though very little was planned out, there was going to be another trilogy of Star Wars films that would have explored Luke Skywalker’s life as a Jedi Knight, eventually encountering the Emperor only in the third film of this new trilogy (original plans didn’t have him appearing in Return of the Jedi).

In his travels, Luke eventually encounters an entirely different woman on the other side of the galaxy who turns out to be his sister.

We don’t know much about this other sister, but surprisingly enough, we do have a name. The earliest draft of The Empire Strikes Back screenplay comes from Leigh Brackett, and that screenplay was heavily modified by George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan after Brackett died in 1978.

Her Star Wars screenplay had two related (no pun intended) surprises: not only was Darth Vader not Luke’s father, but Luke’s real dad would show up as a Force ghost and mention a long-lost sister named Nellith.

It’s fun to ponder what might have been when it comes to our favorite Star Wars characters and films, but we’re still mostly happy with the Original Trilogy that we got (Ewoks and all).

Now, at least, we have an answer to why Luke Skywalker was playing tonsil hockey with his sister in the middle film: she was never supposed to be his sister at all. 

However, if any of you fans like their overly affectionate sibling relationship, we won’t judge you…just don’t ask us to read your fanfiction with titles like “Baby Sister Is Stuck Inside the Power Converter Again.”