With $1 billion worldwide to its name, the number of people who haven’t seen "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" is growing smaller and smaller. That’s all to say **there are spoilers ahead.** This post is probably one best enjoyed after you’ve seen the movie, so make the most of the holidays while they’re still here and buy a ticket.
Diving right in, on Christmas Day, Pablo Hidalgo, a Creative Executive at Lucasfilm Story Group, revealed on Twitter that the original title for "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" was "Star Wars: Shadow Of The Empire" (singular). It certainly would’ve fit the story, but the problem was, it was too similar to the name of a 1996 book by Steve Perry titled "Star Wars: Shadows Of The Empire" (plural). If you’re curious, here’s Hidalgo’s tweets followed by the book synopsis:
@VegaArts_ @justinlasalata it was Shadow (singular) of the Empire for a while.
— Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) December 25, 2015
Shadows of the Empire illuminates the shadowy outlines of a criminal conspiracy that exists in the background of the events in the movies, ruled by a character new to us. Prince Xizor is a mastermind of evil who dares to oppose one of the best-known fictional villains of all time: Darth Vader. The story involves all the featured Star Wars movie characters, plus Emperor Palpatine and, of course, Lord Vader himself.
Meanwhile, among the many rumors swirling before the movie came out, was that Darth Vader would be making some kind of cameo in the movie. While that didn’t happen, in the pages of "The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens" (via Making Star Wars), it seems that at one point, it was proposed by concept artist Iain McCaig that Force Ghost Anakin Skywalker, played by Hayden Christensen, make an appearance.
"I love that quote from ‘A Wizard Of Earthsea,’ the fantasy novel by Ursula K. LeGuin: ‘When you light a candle, you also cast a shadow.’ That inspired me to propose, for the first time, that Anakin’s ghost could come back," he said. "If we see Anakin Skywalker, because he does flow back and forth between Darth Vader and Anakin, let’s see him as a character with a dark and light side. The reason Luke is this whole new entity is because he was the first to acknowledge his own dark side — that it was not separate from him."
Interesting stuff. Check out scans from the pages below.
Lastly, Comic Book Movie have also dug into ‘The Art Of Star Wars,’ where it reveals another clue behind C-3PO’s red arm. It seems the talkative droid has seen some action before ‘The Force Awakens.’
