By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

The Chicago Tribune published an interview with Gary Kurtz yesterday, in which the man who produced both Star Wars: A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back discussed why he did not return to George Lucas’ billion dollar franchise for its third installment.

“I could see where things were headed,” Kurtz told reporter Geoff Boucher. “The toy business began to drive the (Lucasfilm) empire. It’s a shame. They make three times as much on toys as they do on films. It’s natural to make decisions that protect the toy business, but that’s not the best thing for making quality films.”

Photo from nocookie.net.

The interview was done in conjunction with the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, as well as Kurtz’s participation in the “Celebration V” Star Wars convention this past weekend. 

In terms of the Star Wars prequels, like many die-hard fans, Kurtz wasn’t a fan of Hayden Christensen’s portrayl of Anakin Skywalker, the man who would become Darth Vader. He did state, however, that he thought Lucasfilm did “a pretty good job” with the films.

“I’m not sure the characters ever felt real like they did in Empire,” Kurtz said.

Kurtz also said the ending to the original trilogy was at one point very different from what appeared on screen.

“We had an outline, an George changed everything in it,” he said. “Instead of bittersweet and poignant, he wanted a euphoric ending with everybody happy. The original idea was that they would recover Han Solo in the early part of [Return of the Jedi], and that he would then die in the middle part of the film in a raid on an Imperial base. Geroge then decided he didn’t want any of the principals killed. By that time they were really big toy sales, and that was the reason.”

In the Empire of Dreams documentary, which appears on the original trilogy DVD set, Harrison Ford says that he too wanted Han Solo to die, so that he could “sacrifice himself for the other characters.”

Apparently Kurtz also wanted Jedi to end with the Rebellion in tatters, and Luke Skywalker walking off alone “like Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti westerns.”

Kurtz also didn’t like the idea of a second Death Star in Return of the Jedi, claiming it would be too derivative of the first film.

But despite his disagreements with Lucas, Kurtz still looks back fondly on Empire. 

“It’s the one, for me, where everything went right,” he said. “And it was my goodbye to a big part of my life.”

Front page image from thefastertimes.com.