The reveal in Return of the Jedi that Luke and Leia were twins was truly a shock, and the revelation remains one of Star Wars’ most confounding moments. Although Star Wars movies and TV shows are known for their plot twists, perhaps the most notable being Darth Vader telling Luke that he was his father in The Empire Strikes Back, this twist was quite a bit different. In fact, this revelation about Luke and Leia’s familial relationship was one of Star Wars’ most shocking moments.
Throughout A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, Luke and Leia had a very different relationship—one that did not suggest a blood relation whatsoever. Instead, the pair seemed to be increasingly romantically linked, albeit with Han Solo posing a bit of an obstacle. While it’s become nearly common knowledge now that Luke and Leia were ultimately written to be siblings after having romantic undertones, the details of their relationship prior to Return of the Jedi reveal just how surprising that news truly was.
The trailers for both A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back heavily imply that a romance is brewing between Luke and Leia. In the trailer for A New Hope, Luke’s comments about Leia’s beauty and Leia’s quick kiss before Luke attempts to swing them across a gap inside the Death Star make the cut. Moreover, the narrator in the trailer describes Star Wars (then the title of the movie) as a “romance of the future.” While it doesn’t specifically call Luke and Leia out by name, the insinuation is clear. In fact, Han and Leia share no screen time throughout the trailer.
The Empire Strikes Back trailer implies much of the same. In it, the narrator similarly describes the movie as “an epic of romance.” Immediately following this description, Luke and Leia lean in close, about to kiss. While that is followed by Han and Leia having several clips together, they seem mainly antagonistic to one another, with Leia shrugging Han off and Han pointing a finger in her face. Again, the implication is clear that, despite the building romantic tension between Leia and Han, Luke and Leia are the true relationship in Star Wars.
Star Wars composer John Williams was just as confused as audiences were when Return of the Jedi revealed the twist that Luke and Leia were siblings. For A New Hope, Williams had created a romantic theme for the twins, assuming that they were headed toward becoming a couple. Williams has since explained that, originally, no one anticipated a second movie, so the romantic score didn’t seem out of place. After all, those clips from the trailer were kept in the movie.
Eventually, Williams, along with everyone else, realized the entirely accidental faux pas these romantic implications were. While making Luke and Leia twins has had incredible impacts on the Star Wars franchise, most of them positive, it nevertheless made the first two movies in Star Wars’ original trilogy quite awkward. Indeed, Star Wars has retconned Luke and Leia’s kiss to some degree, no doubt attempting to grapple with the uncomfortable implications of this choice.
Ultimately, of course, Return of the Jedi overwrote A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, sidelining the narrative of a budding romance between Luke and Leia in place of the surprise twist that they were twins. While this may not have been the plan originally, it led to the Star Wars of today. In fact, this reveal informed the Star Wars prequel trilogy, which fleshed out the Skywalker family tree considerably.
Given that Star Wars has in some ways become synonymous with the Skywalker Saga, this retcon truly did have an immense impact on the franchise, and it brought about some of Star Wars’ best movies. In light of Luke and Leia being siblings, the prequels in part needed to establish their lineage, how they were separated, and the story of their mother and father. The prequel stories of fan-favorite characters Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Padmé Amidala are therefore in some ways directly linked to this reversal of Luke and Leia’s story.
While this twist did lead to some excellent plot points and character developments, though, it was also one of Star Wars’ oddest choices. Even in a franchise built upon retcons and twists, this was a particularly bold one, no doubt giving audiences a lot to process. Following on the heels of such romantic undertones in the relationship between Luke and Leia throughout A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, the sibling twist in Return of the Jedi was truly an incredible shock.
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