8 Scenes That Would Have Ruined The Original Star Wars Trilogy

5. Darth Vader's Lava Fortress Castle & His Pet Gargoyles - The Empire Strikes Back

The same Leigh Brackett draft of The Empire Strikes Back also contained another perplexing scene of outright insanity: one that would have featured Darth Vader, a lava fortress castle and a bunch of pet gargoyles. That's not us trying to be funny: there really was a time when Lucas was considering a scene that would have depicted Vader as the sort of villain who took refuge in a giant fortress, complete with stony-faced companions. Between Leigh Brackett's first draft and a few later revisions, there was genuinely going to a portion of the film dedicated to Vader's hanging around this place - you know, somewhere he could go for evil contemplating. Had this scene been included in the final film, of course, it would have rendered The Empire Strikes Back as totally mental and it would have been almost impossible to take the movie seriously. Can you imagine how cheesy it would have been in retrospect? Vader poised as some Wicked Witch of the West-type character. On a character level, it makes no sense, either; Vader has no interest in castles or keeping pet gargoyles. It's just wrong.