Fans recently celebrated the 40th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, which was released back on May 21, 1980. Although it has been four decades since the Star Wars movie was screened in theaters, it looks like people are still learning new things about it every day. For instance, creator George Lucas admitted that he went through great lengths to make sure nobody leaked the film's epic plot twist that would shock audiences around the world. Interestingly, it meant providing a bogus line that would have been just as shocking if it were true.
In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke Skywalker finally got some training from Yoda on Dagobah but he realized that his friends Han Solo, Princess Leia Organa, and Chewbacca were all in trouble on Cloud City. Not surprisingly, Luke decided to abandon his training to help his companions, leading to an epic showdown with Darth Vader. The lightsaber duel in itself was amazing but the two also had an emotional conversation as Vader tried to convince Luke to join the Dark Side. The Sith Lord then delivers a shocking revelation: He is actually Luke's father, the former Jedi who has turned into the Dark Side.
It was a jaw-dropping reveal that shook audiences to the core considering that nobody expected the connection between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. However, Mark Hamill already knew about the plot twist since George Lucas told him the truth just the night before the scene was shot. On the other hand, the other actor who was in the scene with Hamill had no idea about Luke's parentage since he was given a completely different line to deliver.
In an interview with Empire, George Lucas revealed that Darth Vader actor David Prowse could not be trusted with the script since he had a tendency of leaking some details about the film. As a remedy, the Star Wars creator decided to give Prowse a fake line to work with when he finally acted opposite Hamill. Interestingly, Prowse's line was "Obi-Wan Kenobi is your father", which could have been just as shocking as the original line.
But how did we end up with a perfectly delivered "No, I am your father" in The Empire Strikes Back instead of the bogus line given to David Prowse. The voice of Darth Vader is actually James Earl Jones and he recorded the correct lines which were then used on the film. Thus, this resulted in one of the most commonly misquoted lines in cinematic history as most people still believe that Vader said, "Luke, I am your father."
