‘Splinter of the Mind’s Eye’: the low-budget ‘Star Wars’ sequel that never was
Star Wars changed movies forever when it crushed box office records in 1977. If it hadn’t, George Lucas might have ended up making a sequel that couldn’t be more different from The Empire Strikes Back.
The story of how George Lucas created Star Wars is almost as legendary as Luke Skywalker’s mission to blow up the Death Star. In addition to facing production setbacks and developing cutting-edge technology with the company of Industrial Light and Magic, Lucas received no support from 20th Century Fox, as the studio even allowed him to maintain all the merchandising rights.
In hindsight, Fox’s blunder is one of the biggest in entertainment history. Even if Lucas hadn’t earned a penny from the theatrical grosses of Star Wars (which usurped Jaws to become the biggest movie ever), he still would’ve become one of the world’s youngest millionaires thanks to all the toys, T-shirts, and comic books sold to enthusiastic young fans. However, Lucas never counted out the notion that Star Wars could end up flopping, which is why he has an alternative plan to make a sequel.
The director had commissioned the author Alan Dean Foster to write a novelisation of Star Wars that was released six months before the film hit theatres, but he also greenlit a follow-up that could be turned into a cheap sequel if it failed to make its money back. Lucas wanted a sequel that could be made using the existing sets, costumes, and props, and he didn’t want to add anything else that could heighten the budget.
“The only restriction placed on me was that the follow-up novel had to be filmable on a low budget,” Foster told Yahoo Movies. “That’s why I set it on a fog-shrouded planet. A lot of the action takes place in the fog or underground, which facilitates shooting with cheap backgrounds.”
Foster’s novel, Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, was set shortly after the Battle of Yavin, with both Luke and Princess Leia on the run as the Galactic Empire pursued the leaders of the Rebel Alliance. Notably, Han Solo doesn’t show up in the book, as Harrison Ford had yet to sign on for a sequel.
Some of Foster’s ideas were shot down by Lucas, who asked him to remove an action-packed space battle that would have been too goddamn costly to shoot. However, some of his ideas lingered around in the Star Wars universe and ended up playing significant roles. Splinter of the Mind’s Eye introduced a rare type of diamond called a Kaiburr crystal, which would later be retconned as the power source that powers the Jedi Knights’ lightsabers (getting children all over the world scrambling for their cheap plastic toy versions).
The limitations placed on Foster’s story ended up being superfluous when Star Wars absolutely annihilated every imaginable box office record, but Splinter of the Mind’s Eye was still released as a standalone novel in 1978 as part of the expanded universe. Although it offered only a portion of all the damn drama and twists that would inevitably appear in The Empire Strikes Back, Splinter of the Mind’s Eye did present the exciting notion that Luke would duel with Darth Vader two whole years before their iconic standoff in Irvin Kershner’s film.
Had Star Wars suffered the fate of many other sci-fi flops and only been remembered as an underloved cult classic, there’s a good chance that Splinter of the Mind’s Eye would have made for an entertaining little movie, especially with someone like Lucas behind the camera.
