Key Insights

• Film Success: Star Wars became a surprise hit, grossing $410 million worldwide after its 1977 release.
• Backup Plan: George Lucas had a low-budget sequel plan involving the novel Splinter of the Mind’s Eye.
• Novel Restrictions: Alan Dean Foster could not use Han Solo in the novel due to contractual issues.
• Filming Considerations: The story was designed to be filmed on a low budget, with settings that minimized costs.

When writer/director George Lucas sent his film Star Wars (later to be known as Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope) out into the world in 1977, there weren’t many who were confident it would have any success at the box office. It was a tough production that went $3 million over budget, and even cast and crew members were predicting it would be a failure. As we know now, it quickly became a surprise hit, making $410 million worldwide during its initial run and surpassing Jaws to become the highest-grossing film of all time (for a while). Lucas got to bring his epic space opera saga to the screen with follow-ups and prequels that had substantially larger budgets than the first movie’s $11 million… but if the movie hadn’t been a hit, he had a low budget backup plan for a sequel: a film adaptation of the Star Wars tie-in novel Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, written by Alan Dean Foster.

Foster had been hired to ghostwrite a novelization of Star Wars in 1976, and his contract required him to write a second novel. A novel that could have become a filmed sequel. Foster explains in his book The Director Should’ve Shot You: Memoirs of the Film Trade (pick up a copy HERE), “While Lucas was perfectly happy with the novelization of the film, he did want a couple of changes to Splinter. Among the few restrictions that had been placed on me in the writing of the sequel novel were that I could not use the character of Han Solo because Harrison Ford had not yet agreed to the relevant contractual details allowing for the use of his likeness in ancillary material. For me, no Han Solo essentially meant no Chewbacca, which is why the pair do not appear in the book. Other than that I could write pretty much whatever I wanted, bearing in mind that nothing in the story was to blatantly contradict what was in the film. Furthermore, the story had to be filmable on a low budget, the notion being that if the film was not a roaring success but also not an abject failure, George would be able to shoot a sequel utilizing as many costumes, props, and backgrounds from the first film as possible. That is why I set the story on a fog-shrouded planet, and often underground. Cheaper-to-film backgrounds. The novel also opened with a complex battle in space, which is what forces Luke and Leia down onto the planet Mimban. Lucas had me excise that. Not because there was anything wrong with it storywise, but because it would have been expensive to film. So Splinter of the Mind’s Eye essentially opens with what originally was Chapter II. Subsequent to the film’s overwhelming success, budget considerations for a sequel were no longer a factor and George could film whatever he wished (although the mounted attack by massed Wookiees astride ostrich-like creatures that he once spoke of fondly never made it to the screen). I always thought Splinter would have made a nice, small movie-for-TV set right between episodes IV and V, but I understand why, thematically, it fell by the wayside. Would’ve topped the holiday special, though.“

Splinter of the Mind’s Eye (get it HERE) has the following description: Luke Skywalker expected trouble when he volunteered to follow Princess Leia on her mission to the planet Circarpous. But he discovered that hidden on the planet was the Kaiburr crystal, a mysterious gem that would give the one who possessed it such powers over the Force that he would be all but invincible. In the wrong hands, the crystal could be deadly. So Luke had to find this treasure and find it fast….

What do you think of the idea of Splinter of the Mind’s Eye being brought to the screen as a low budget Star Wars sequel? Would you have liked to have seen that movie? Let us know by leaving a comment below.