A long time ago, the biggest movie spoiler of all time went relatively unnoticed...

David Prowse: "Father can't kill son, son can't kill father," "So they live again to star in Star Wars IV."



EXCERPT: In late 1978, David Prowse revealed that he was Luke’s father – two years before Empire Strikes Back hit theaters.

www.retroist.com /1978-style-star-wars-spoilers/

David Who? I just checked with LucasFilm and they don't seem to acknowledge anybody with that name.

Wait. They actually made movies before the internet? How did they promote them? Newspaper ads?

From the article's reader comments:



It wasn't a "Hollywood movie," but yeah I share this guy's view that it wasn't *that* shocking at the time. It actually made alot of sense, at least to me and the audience I saw it with. The reaction was more of "Oh, of COURSE!" rather than "NOOOOO That's imPOSSIBLE!" 30 years hence, we like to remember it as the most shocking moment of our puberty.



"David of Perth" is a dipshit. It was STAR WARS in 1977. It became STAR WARS EPISODE IV A NEW HOPE for the 1980 re-release, before Empire was released.

So it's been known by its subtitle for 30 fucking years now. Get over it.

There is one plausible explanation other than the one you offer Bandersnatch.

In Australia movie releases are not always simultaneous to the rest of the world and this was much worse back even in the 1990's let alone the 1970's so David of Perth may well have not seen Star Wars - Episode IV in a cinema for the first time until 1978.

Perth holds the record for a capital city the furthest away from another capital city in it's region and Australia has only been able to "catch up" with the times of the rest of the world in the last 10 to 15 years.

If the above is not the case,then your original explanation would be the simplest and hence the most likely.

I hope no one minds that the thread title has been updated and original post upgraded. The initial post link's article references another site's (retroist.com) article which itself references (along with a scan) a 1978 article about David "Darth Vader" Prowse. Prowse was actually banned from Celebration V by Lucasfilm.

Below are some pages from this week's just released Insider Interview Souvenir Special Issue which apparently reprints every Insider interview article ever. One page below features a interview with both Prowse and James Earl Jones where Jones acknowledges Prowse as Vader. I happen to be pro-Prowse because I know how it feels to be banned by Lucasfilm.



Also above is an interview from the same Insider issue by one Harry Fielder who played Death Star Trooper in The Star Wars 1977. Mr Fielder registered here and started a thread at MF entitled: The Star Wars 1976.

501ST - Very true. I hadn't thought of that!

What is the beef with David Prowse? I remember watching the Empire of Dreams doc years ago (Jesus) and his conspicuous absence, as well as a sequence where Lucasfilm guys were making fun of his on-set voice in the suit leaving a bad taste in my mouth. The tone of the program totally shifts to making fun of David Prowse and calling him Scottish, when he isn't.

It's because David Prowse is a whiny egotistical loud mouth. He's been bitching about LFL since 1980 to anyone who would listen. He always comes off as ungrateful. The way he signs autographs "Dave Prowse IS Darth Vader" is irritating and marginalizes the HUGE contribution that JEJ had as the voice of Vader and Bob Anderson's contributions as the swordsman/stunt double.

So is this article is fake or not? Kershner always tells the story of how Prowse complained about not being told he is the father before filming. Also, it must have been some magazine if that article did go almost completely unnoticed.

I do think it's funny that he complained about not being told about the father thing and how he would have done the scene differently if he had known. What exactly would he have done differently? Vader stands there with his hand outstretched the whole time.

I'm going to call bullshit on the article. There have been too many documented instances when Prowse and co. are surprised themselves, and basically no proof before 1979 that Lucas intended to have a Vader-Skywalker relationship. Rinzler writes in his new book that although Lucas was exploring a father figure for Luke, it wasn't necessarily Darth Vader. Leigh Bracket's first draft didn't even have their relationship in it. It wasn't until Lucas' own second draft rewrite that it first appears.