DELETED SCENE: PROBOT vs WAMPA!

The ice planet Hoth is not only dangerous for its inhospitable weather conditions, but also for the deadly creatures that reside there. For example, the monstrous Wampa species, who prey on and attack from their snow camouflage anything they think they can eat. Unfortunately, one such wild beast becomes easy prey to another type of creature, an Imperial Probe Droid, which finds its icy lair and soon destroys it before moving on in its search for any signs of human Rebel activity.

A storyboard to a deleted scene from The Empire Strikes Back that was partially filmed on location in Norway with the Probot prop back in March 1979 (the Wampa likely changed to a rodent). The scene can also be found in the original Donald Glut novelisation of the film, released in 1980.

'AN EMPIRE' AT 45: FROM FINSE WITH LOVE!

UK art technician Alan Tomkins with the Tauntaun prop outside the Finse 1222 hotel in Norway. Image: Pamela Mann.

Filming of the desert realms of Tatooine, in Tunisia, for the original Star Wars back during March/April 1976, had brought its own unique problems that had to be overcome by the film crew, but those were nothing in comparison to the location work at Norway for the opening act of The Empire Strikes Back set on the ice planet of Hoth. Heavy ice, snowstorms, avalanches and 'white-outs' were constant, in the worst weather that the chosen location, Finse, had seen for decades. In such conditions it was a marvel that the main first unit, headed by Irvin Kershner, a frost-bitten Gary Kurtz, stalwart David Tomblin, and others, were able to accomplish so much. And thankfully, some material could even be shot literally outside the hotel! 

But the worsening weather would go on to heavily affect the second unit's eventual filming of the ground snow battle scenes against the AT-AT's going into April, 1979...

Gary Kurtz and Irvin Kershner brave the elements.

Mark Hamill gets sun sun and rest atop one of the special Empire snow vehicles.

Peter Mayhew and crew enjoy a warming meal on at one the location camp bases.

Filming Chewbacca's one and only scene on location.

Continuity Polaroid of Mayhew with Pamela Mann.

"That was fairly horrendous. It was cold and the wind was blowing. It was just a bit unpleasant, but the filming of that scene was only half a day."

Peter Mayhew - Star Wars Insider - Issue 28

Quickly abandoning filming as a dreaded 'white-out' arrives at the site.

Inside one of the two location camp huts, Irvin Kershner rehearses a scene with Mark Hamill atop the primary Tauntaun prop, watched and recorded by Michel Parbot and his documentary team.

Posing atop the full scale prop for publicity images.

Filming reaction shots with the head prop, also built by Stuart Freeborn and his team in London.

Some of the crew assemble at a base camp with the prop Tauntaun. Image: Pamela Mann.

Crewman Des Webb wears the heavy stilts whilst playing the Wampa snow monster.

The snow vehicles continue on throughout the location filming.

Lifted by helicopter (likely piloted by film-making veteran Marc Wolfe), Colin Skeaping doubles as Luke for his descent from the damaged Walker.

UK Script Supervisor and Continuity talent Pamela Mann enjoys the location.

Pamela even enjoys her own igloo as part of the location camraderie.

Harrison Ford, Kershner and crew prepare for the next Tauntaun sequence.

Moving the damaged Snowspeeder prop into location positioning.

Filming Luke's swift escape from the wrecked Snowspeeder.

Filming the Probot prop at varying sites on location.

The half Probot prop and tracks outside the Finse 1222 hotel.

'SPECIAL EDITION' CLASSIC IMAGE: RETURN OF THE WAMPA!

Celebrating today's Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back - Special Edition, here's a behind the scenes look at the biggest new scene/revision made to that film- an expanded version of Luke's capture and escape from his Wampa captor on Hoth. The scene would feature a new cave set build at ILM, with Harold 'Howie' Weed playing the creature (in a newly built suit/facial head based on early concepts art), and directed by George Lucas, who would excitedly make the film's original director, Irvin Kershner, aware of the upcoming cinematic changes.

The Wampa enjoys his first course. Storyboards by George Hull.

Planning the set, built at a reduced height to make the monster look bigger on screen.

Testing the in-progress new Wampa costume at ILM.

Howie Weed gets hungry as the old/new Wampa.

Don Bies and colleague Mark Siegel make a costume adjustment during filming at ILM.

Lucas confers with Bies and Howie Weed (who has oxygen being fed him his mouth).

Celebrating today's anniversary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_WdDXy4VS0

AN 'EMPIRE' AT 40: WAMPA - 1, SNOWTROOPERS - 0

With C-3PO ingeniously having removed the security label from the door to the Wampa Pen, unaware invading Imperial Snowtroopers get a brief shock and an early potential casualty from one of the beasts, in a comedic visual moment, also involving Darth Vader, that didn't work, and not only stifled the drama of our heroes escape from Hoth but was also a necessary editing casualty linked to the unsuccessfully translated Wampa sub plot.

Threepio sneakily removes the Wampa pen warning sign in a now iconic deleted scene moment.

Specially posed publicity image.

Darth Vader is intrigued to know what's going on, in a deleted comedy moment that fell flat.

AN 'EMPIRE' AT 40: WAMPA - KEEP OUT!

Captured with the aid of sonic technology, the Wampas attempting to break in to Echo Base have now been contained in a special holding section, its hatch door adorned with a warning sign. The creatures' wild and erratic noises soon catch the attention of our favourite droids, in another Wampa-related deleted scene which has still not been released on any home entertainment format.

AN 'EMPIRE' AT 40: ARTOO KEEPS BACK!

He's a formidable little fellow when he needs to be, but not even Artoo Detoo is foolish enough to singularly challenge the towering brute force of a Wampa snow beast that's just broken into one of the darkened ice halls of the Rebel base caverns, and a formidable creature that has only just been defeated by a concentration of human troops, in this deleted scene from The Empire Strikes Back that eventually made its way in truncated form onto 2011 Blu-ray.

Artoo shows his wariness at the Wama's fallen body.

AN 'EMPIRE' AT 40: WAMPA IN THE BASE!

Wandering through the Rebel base, Artoo scoots past some Rebel technicians into a deserted cavern area, and straight into a Wampa that has broken through an ice wall. Soon enough, a game of cat and mouse begins. Thankfully, just as it looks like Artoo is cornered by the Wampa, several rebels with blasters, and one with a blaster/bazooka weapon of some kind, takes out the creature.

Kershner, on his first studio days filming at Elstree, would find the specific remote controlled Artoo Detoo needed for the Wampa filming to be difficult- with erratic moves and breakdowns. 

With the outdoor Wampa footage not proving successful in Norway, the majority of it hardly making the finished film, Stuart Freeborn and his team, already under pressure, have to re-work the creature, especially its face, for upcoming studio filming, and a later exterior scene filmed on the ELSTREE backlot (the creature goes through several permutations, the developed face masks eventually discarded, bar one brief partially hands covered scene in an ice-cave, in favour of a creature face insert later created by Phil Tippett and the ILM team in late Post-Production in California). With veteran stuntman Terry Richards inhabiting the massive costume for the action scenes instead of Des Webb, Freeborn's then protege Nick Dudman would go on to recall the Wampa re-working to STAR WARS INSIDER in 2008: “That was always a nightmare because it was made with sheepskins and weighed a ton. I do remember problems with that because they’d already shot it in Norway before I came on the picture. Then there were first pickup shots being done at ELSTREE, so they were putting the shoot back together. I remember that being an absolute pain.”

The early part of this deleted sequence was instead used to reflect the ground-pounding approach of the Imperial Walkers for a scene later in the film.

The 1980 released ART OF THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK book (page 24) shows a sketch of the corridors of Echo Base with wall and door details, including one sketch which has a note where a creature called the Yuzzem (later to be named a Wampa) was to break through a chunk of wall, whilst another sketch has the Yuzzem arm breaking through a removable section of the wall

The Wampa's search for Artoo begins!

The Wampa wrecks an overhead power cable.

Posed images from the filming of the Rebels' battle against the Wampa.

How much of the rebels bazooka attack and reaction shots with the creature that was ultimately filmed is unknown. The 1980 Marvel comic book has a moment in the battle where a rebel communicates to his superiors of the creature's attack- again, we have no idea if this shot was filmed or merely for the adaptation only. At this point during The Empire Strikes Back's principal photography already over schedule, and with the Wampa footage not proving a success with lots of production time and money wasted, this part may never have been completed.