Long before Luke Skywalker was an unassuming farm boy from a desert planet living a lowly life with his aunt and uncle (talk about uncool!), he was actually a 16-year-old girl named "Starkiller" who - wait for it - was relentlessly in love with Han Solo and trawled the galaxy in an attempt to try and win him over. In this early incarnation of Star Wars, by the way, Han Solo also had a beard and wielded a lightsaber like that was the most normal thing in the world. It might sound absolutely crazy to think that Luke Skywalker was ever intended as the opposite gender, but it's completely true: Lucas later made the swap when he realised that Luke being a girl didn't fit the story he wanted to tell (and 20th Century Fox didn't like the idea much, insisting on a male protagonist). The rest, as they say, is history. Luke didn't just go through just one change, however: at one time he was intended as a military general in his late-60s before the story was adjusted to make him a teenager.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
