Star Wars Creator George Lucas Had A Simple Reason For Not Directing The Empire Strikes Back
One of the more common misconceptions about "Star Wars" is the idea that creator George Lucas directed and wrote the entire original trilogy. That idea leads people to wonder how the guy who created something as good as "The Empire Strikes Back" could later go on to make something so terrible with the prequels. How could Lucas' films have fallen so far in quality so quickly?
The answer, of course, is that it was Irvin Kershner who directed "Empire," and the screenplay was written by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan. ("Return of the Jedi," meanwhile, was directed by Richard Marquand.) Lucas oversaw the production and provided the stories for 5 and 6, but as a whole, the "Star Wars" original trilogy seemed to work as well as it did because of Lucas' limited involvement. Even with the first film, which Lucas did write and direct, he was dealing with a lot of limitations that prevented him from getting too self-indulgent. Actors pushed back against his clumsy dialogue, and the editors made major cuts and changes to help with the film's pacing.
Time has shown us that the less directly involved Lucas is with a "Star Wars" film, the better, but his decision to let Kershner direct "Empire" had a much simpler reason behind it. "I hate directing," he told Rolling Stone in a 1980 interview. "It's like fighting a fifteen-round heavyweight bout with a new opponent every day. You go to work knowing just how you want a scene to be, but by the end of the day, you're usually depressed because you didn't do a good enough job ... It was easy to let go of directing."
Probably should've kept letting go
Not to pile on George Lucas even more than he's already been, but considering how successful the approach for "Empire" turned out, one can't help but wonder what the prequels would've looked like has Lucas stayed on as the story advisor and let someone else take over the script and direction. Instead, Lucas had complete control over both throughout all three prequel films, and unlike with "A New Hope," there were far fewer constraints holding him back from his worst creative instincts.
It's hard to hold this all against him too much though, because "Star Wars" as a decades-spanning franchise wouldn't exist without him. Even beyond the surprise success of "A New Hope," so much of what allowed "Empire" to surpass its predecessor was the creative freedom Lucas gave Kershner and the rest of the crew. Rather than cater to studio demands, Lucas made the bold choice to fund the movie himself, a decision that could've easily ruined him if things turned out differently.
"They were supposed to shoot [the Hoth scenes in Finse] in two weeks and they shot it in months," Lucas later explained in a 2020 interview. "So it created a lot of havoc. We were projected to go way over budget and I'd already borrowed all the money that I could." As the production continued to go over budget and behind schedule, Lucas borrowed even more money from a different bank to keep things running smoothly. It was insanely stressful, but no one today can say it wasn't worth it. Lucas may not have directed the franchise's best film, but he was a vital part of what allowed it to be so great in the first place.