Everyone knows that ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ is the second movie released in the Star Wars universe. However, the initial plan was not that, because not even the george lucas he had them all with him when ‘A new hope’ achieved the enormous success it had. Thus, devised a plan B which would have led to Episode V of the saga being very different.
The most ardent fans of the franchise surely know that Lucas hired Alan Dean Foster to write the novelization of the first film, a very common practice at the time. But it was not the only thing that he commissioned her, because he also asked her to write a second novel with the idea that could be the basis for a low budget sequel in case all Fox would allow him to do was make a cheap continuation of the story of Luke Skywalker and company.
What was ‘The eye in the mind’
The novel in question is titled ‘The eye in the mind’ and centers on a mission for Luke and Leia on a planet where a precious stone with powers over the force is found. If that were not enough with the Imperial stormtroopers present there, everything is further complicated by the arrival of Darth Vader.
Finally, everything leads to an epic confrontation between Vader and Luke and Leia, which ends with the loss of an arm of the former. A curious reverse of what would happen in ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ with Luke losing a hand. Indeed, if you miss Han Solo and Chewbacca here it’s because they don’t appear. The reason? She only she had signed up to Harrison Ford for a movie and in this scenario I would not have returned.
Another important detail that distances it from the official canon of the saga is that ‘The eye in the mind’ is that it makes the mutual romantic interest between Luke and Leia quite clear. Foster himself recalled years ago the instructions that Lucas gave him and also that he asked him to delete something from the book:
The only restriction placed on me was that the sequel to the novel had to be able to be shot on a low budget. That’s why I set it on a planet shrouded in mist. Much of the action takes place in fog or underground, making it easy to shoot with cheap backdrops. The book originally started with a pretty complex space battle that forces Luke and Leia down to this planet, and George had me cut it because it would have been expensive to shoot.
Star Wars The Mind’s Eye (novel) (Star Wars: Novels)
However, ‘A New Hope’ was an impressive success, becoming the highest grossing film in history at the time. That led Lucas to scrap the plan for the sequel to be ‘The Eye in the Mind’ and end up becoming the first novel in the Star Wars expanded universe.