Before Star Wars, it was originally a shocking twist. However, if fans had been paying close attention – and known what to believe – it would not have been a surprise at all.
The first Star Wars movie, A New Hope’s first sequel, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, provided a new challenge. During a time when there were fewer sequels and no internet to connect an audience, Lucasfilm’s marketing team had to keep viewers interested for three years before Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back premiered in 1980. Due to this, Lucasfilm found creative methods to Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
One such method was to publish an article about Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back in Starlog Magazine, a popular science fiction magazine at the time. This article featured a list of rumors the marketing team had heard about Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back or created on their own. However, they intentionally mixed some true statements in with the false rumors. This included, “And more than once we've heard that it turns out that Vader is really Luke's father!” (via Starlog Magazine). Since this spoiler was surrounded by incorrect and even contradictory rumors about Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back though, nobody believed it.
Craig Miller, Lucasfilm’s first fan relations officer, worked on much of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back’s marketing. According to an article (via Han being frozen in carbonite, Lando Calrissian’s introduction, and Boba Fett’s first appearance since the Star Wars Holiday Special. However, most rumors were false. These included ideas like Leia choosing Luke, Luke killing Han, and even the Millennium Falcon accidentally time traveling back to the Clone Wars, where the crew would fight alongside Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke’s father. With so many inaccurate rumors like these, it was difficult for fans to determine what to believe.
This magazine article was not the only way Miller manipulated viewers’ expectations. The marketing team also wrote a fake treatment for Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, describing the movie’s plot. Similar to the article, it included some publically known information, such as an ice planet setting, along with incorrect storylines. Miller and his team purposely leaked this treatment, encouraging rumors to grow even more. By blending truth and lies in their marketing tactics, Lucasfilm was able to build anticipation for Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and reveal its biggest twist about Darth Vader being Luke’s father without anyone noticing.
