As a film that doubled the stock price of Fox Films in the 20th century, "Star Wars" in 1977 was a sensation. The huge profits it earned, the revolutionary impact on the film industry, and the cultural phenomena that inspired it completely Exceeding expectations, Lucas found a huge business opportunity for independent production, so he decided to break the Hollywood routine and personally invest in this sequel. Due to the supervision of the Industrial Light and Magic Company and the financing of the filming, George Lucas, who had no time to do so, handed the film to his teacher, Irwin Kershner, at the School of Film and Television at the University of Southern California to direct the film. Kershner was reluctant to take the lead at first because he believed that the sequel could not reach the level of the first. Later, under the advice of his agent, Kershner decided to give it a go. Lucas was the first to find science fiction writer Lie Blackett to write a script based on his story. Before dying of cancer, Blackett completed the first draft of the screenplay in February 1978, and then Lucas completed the second draft of the screenplay. And hired "Indiana Jones" screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan to continue to take over.
After the completion of "Star Wars", Industrial Light and Magic finally passed the difficult initial stage and moved to Marin County, California. "Star Wars 2: The Empire Strikes Back" not only has splendid space wars, but also includes the opening scenes and urban elements that took place on the ice planet. When creating the battle scene on Hoth, Industrial Light and Magic originally planned to use a blue screen to synthesize the Empire's all-terrain heavy armored vehicle into the static image of the original set. Later, it decided to use stop-motion animation technology to shoot the tank image against the hand-painted background. Phil Tippe, who is responsible for the production of stop-motion animations, said that the Imperial Chariot was originally designed as a wheeled heavy armored vehicle. Many people believe that the design of the final version should be inspired by the container crane in the Port of Oakland, but Lucas denied this.
When designing Jedi Master Yoda, makeup artist Stuart Freeborn used his face as a model and added Einstein's wrinkles. The Dagoba set is five feet higher than the studio floor, so that the technician can walk through and manipulate Yoda’s doll. As Frank Oz, who voiced Yoda, had to speak the dialogue under the set, the crew could not be heard. He suffered from communication barriers with Mark Hamill's voice, and Hamill, who played Luke, also suffered a lot, because in the months-long filming, he was the only actor in the whole set, surrounded by machines and With moving props, director Kashner praised Hamill's performance.
