Han Solo was originally supposed to die in Return of the Jedi!
Han Solo was originally supposed to die in Return of the Jedi!
“We had an outline and George [Lucas] changed everything in it,” said co-producer and fellow filmmaker Gary Kurtz. “Instead of bittersweet and poignant he wanted a euphoric ending with everybody happy. The original idea was that they would recover [the kidnapped] Han Solo in the early part of the story and that he would then die in the middle part of the film in a raid on an Imperial base. George then decided he didn’t want any of the principals killed. By that time there were really big toy sales and that was a reason.”
So, basically we have action figure sales to thank for denying us a poignant ending to the trilogy. The team of writers and producers had initially planned for a tragic conclusion which left the rebel forces in shambles, Princess Leia struggling with her new royal duties, and Luke Skywalker walking off alone into the sunset. Instead, we received a warm, fuzzy ending with a bunch of alien teddy bears partying in the forest, which is also pretty awesome, but it makes you wonder how the prototypical epilogue would have been received.
(source)
