10 Most Notorious Star Wars Urban Legends
2. The Wampa Was Created To Mask Mark Hamill's Injuries
Verdict: Untrue
The music industry is more than a match for film when it comes to urban legends. As you all know by now, Tupac is alive and well, Pink Floyd like The Wizard Of Oz a little too much, and Paul McCartney actually died in 1966 and was replaced with a lookalike.
Star Wars canon doesnt have anything to match these levels of ridiculousness, but one incident involving Mark Hamill did result in one of the franchises more persistent urban legends.
In January 1977, Hamill was involved in a fairly serious car accident whilst driving his BMW on a deserted freeway:
I was speeding, going too fast... and what happened, I think, was that I tried to negotiate an off-ramp and lost control, tumbled over, and went off the road. I fractured my nose and my cheek.
There's since been a good degree of speculation that The Empire Strikes Backs opening scene, in which Luke is attacked by the yeti-like Wampa, was written into the film to explain Hamill's change in appearance due to reconstructive surgery.
Vaguely plausible and impossible to discount entirely, but it doesnt quite hold up. George Lucas has denied the validity of this story, and the changes in Hamill's face appear to have more to do with ageing than anything else. The fact that there's a close-up of his face before the Wampa attack even occurs is perhaps the most compelling evidence against a Star Wars urban legend that refuses to die.