Star Wars fans might know all about the legacy of the Skywalker family, but in the original drafts for Star Wars: A New Hope, George Lucas would refer to Luke Skywalker as Luke Starkiller. In fact, Luke was known to be Luke Starkiller even during the first few months of A New Hope's production.
Not many fans know why the Star Wars creator made the name change, but a new article by Screen Rant helps shed some light on Luke Starkiller. As exciting as Luke Starkiller sounds, George Lucas opted to change his lead character's name because of ties with the infamous Charles Manson. The cult leader and his followers were responsible for the deaths of nine people in 1969, and that included the death of the up-and-coming star, Sharon Tate.
Star Wars might have first premiered in 1977, but the Manson Family murders were still fresh in the minds of the public back in the 70s. Lucas might have originally wanted to name Luke a Starkiller (possibly because Luke would eventually go on to blast away the Death Star in A New Hope) but the filmmaker was worried that the name "Starkiller" would remind viewers of Manson. After all, Manson did kill a promising movie star.
It took years before Star Wars got to use the "Starkiller" name. J.J. Abrams decided to name his magnified version of the Death Star "Starkiller Base" in Star Wars: The Force Awakens – a nod to the original name of Luke Skywalker.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker arrives on Digital HD and 4K Ultra HD on March 17. The film is set to release on Blu-ray and DVD on March 31.
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