While The Force Awakens seems like the perfect title for the first live-action Star Wars film in a decade and the first one with the Original Trilogy characters in over 30 years, the film almost had a very different title.
During one of his chats with fans, Lucasfilm Story Group executive Pablo Hidalgo revealed on Twitter that the film was almost called Shadow of the Empire.
Of course, that name should sound familiar to Star Wars fans or anyone who was following the news in 1996. Shadows of the Empire was the name of Steve Perry’s novel, which bridged the gap between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
The novel explained how Boba Fett got Han Solo to Jabba’s palace and how Luke was learning to become a Jedi without Yoda’s help. Leia, Chewbacca and Lando had their own story thread, where they met Prince Xizor of Black Sun, a criminal organization that wanted to challenge the Empire’s strength. Darth Vader also tries to track Luke to turn him to the Dark Side.
Shadows was the first multi-media Star Wars event, where Lucasfilm pulled all the stops. There was a video game, action figures, a comic adaptation and even a soundtrack. The only thing that Lucasfilm didn’t make was an actual movie.
@VegaArts_ @justinlasalata it was Shadow (singular) of the Empire for a while.
— Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) December 25, 2015
Sadly, Shadows is no longer considered canon and there has yet to be a new novel to explain what happened between Empire and Jedi. Perhaps Lucasfilm knows that Shadows still holds a special place in our hearts.
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