AN 'EMPIRE' AT 40: EVOLUTION OF A SNOW BATTLE...

The Imperial Walker design takes shape, in this art from Joe Johnston.

A huge snow battle had always been planned from the outset by Lucas and Kurtz to launch the first Star Wars sequel adventure, and a cost-effective idea was formed, whilst the movie was to be shot on location in Norway, in which they could redress and re-condition existing tanks used by the Norwegian army (with ILM set to build some model tanks for long shot background overlay use). In the end, however, Lucas decides to go for something more original and daring effects-wise when Joe Johnston comes up with an intriguing new visual idea. Johnston recalled to The Annotated Screenplays: “George said the Imperial weapons attacking Hoth should look like walking tanks. The intention with the (AT-AT) Walker was to make it more frightening and anthropomorphic so it would look like a big robot. The idea of having a head and shapes that looked like big eyes and a big jaw was really to make it look more frightening.” According to Lucas on the TESB 2004 DVD release audio commentary, “The Walkers, if anything, were inspired by the original novel of The War of the Worlds where the Martians walked on giant spiders that walked on legs. I was trying to come up with a way of making this battle different and unusual without putting tanks and normal military stuff in there... They're tall because I wanted the speeders to fly under them to make a more dynamic kind of battle out of it. And again I was struggling with the fact that in the first film I had this big space battle at the end of the movie but in this movie there wasn't anything like that.” 

Syd Mead's industrial concept that was an inspiration for the Imperial Walkers.

Ralph McQuarrie would add that the look of the Walkers was inspired from Johnston seeing some work from the artist's friend Syd Mead inside a promotional brochure put out in the sixties for U.S. steel-the brochure containing a whole load of full-colour paintings indicating “what steel will be used for in the future”, of which one of the images showed a four-legged walking truck! Johnston takes the image and re-designs it, militarizing it with guns and a separate head. He also uses several Ralph McQuarrie ideas as an added influence in the early stages (before McQuarrie leaves for England to work on other designs/conceptual art for the film). Lucas continues to bring visual ideas to the table before the final design took shape. Joe Johnston recalled to The Annotated Screenplays: "The intention with the walker was to make it more frightening and anthropomorphic so it would look like a big robot. The idea of having a head and shapes that looked like big eyes and a big jaw was really to make it look more frightening." Johnston would create storyboards of action sequences for the snow battle, many of which had to be re-done or were eliminated when the script was going through its revisions. Additionally, if there were ideas/shots Lucas liked that weren’t in the script they would be incorporated into the battle, be they storyboarded or literally on the stop motion model-filming stage. 

Design details for the Rebel Snowspeeder.

The idea of the Rebels using Snowspeeders in the snow battle first appeared in the Second Draft of the script. In that they are described as “more powerful than the ones Luke used on Tatooine. They can go up to sixty or seventy feet in the air and can make banking turns faster than a skyhopper.” Early concept art by Joe Johnston depicted the vehicles as being heavily modified versions of the starfighters seen in the original Star Wars. One was a slimmed down X-wing fighter without wings and with skis mounted on the underside. Another design was a Y-wing reduced to barely more than a flying cockpit. The design direction was ultimately abandoned and the In-com T-47 Snowspeeder became an entirely original creation. 

Ralph McQuarrie early thumbnail for the approved Walker design.

Joe Johnston storyboard idea.

Detailed look at the Walker cockpit. Art by Joe Johnston.

The spring of ‘78 saw Lucas working more intensely with Johnston on storyboards for the Battle of Hoth, often re-doing shots several times in storyboard form, handy for Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan then working on Second and Third Draft scripts. Originally Luke’s speeder was to have crashed far earlier in the battle sequence, and before the death of Rogue Two (later named Zev), but this would be changed for several reasons later on (including reasons of location weather continuity in Post Production at ILM). The sequence would also be broken down into many more visual shots in post editing. The final script designated three Walkers, each involved in specific plot points during the battle, but in the original storyboards the amounts hadn’t been determined. (Later, in the opening wide shot of the film, at least five Walkers appear on the ice ridge at the beginning of the action sequence.) 

Several Joe Johnston size/scale production drawings.

Movement reference ideas.

Luke’s first attack on the Walker would be later modified to include his remark that their armour is 'too strong for blasters'. Additionally, with regards to the other Rebel pilots, there was no Wedge Antilles in Spring 1978- it was a character called 'RJ' (Rogue Junior) instead- the idea of having Wedge back for Star Wars II came from Lucas himself. It also hadn't been decided at that point as to whether the pilots would wear their orange combat spacesuits from Star Wars (later given extra layering by Costume Designer John Mollo) or something new reflecting the environment. Instead, in these early days, Luke and company were artistically rendered with hoods and goggles.