Undeniably, one of the most remembered exchanges is when Princess Leia tells Han Solo she loves him, and he replies, "I know." This was not scripted. Director Irvin Kershner was unhappy with the scene, which in the shooting script had Han reply meekly, "I love you, too." After myriad attempts to improvise a better response (while the crew stewed about how long it was taking), Harrison Ford came up with the now classic comeback. Still, it almost didn't make the final cut. George Lucas was concerned audiences would laugh, and when a test audience did, he wanted to cut it. But when people couldn't stop talking about the line, he decided to keep it in

Hoth: Ice planet, right? Yes, but it wasn't always going to be that way. Hoth was the name originally assigned to the gaseous world that later became known as Bespin, home of the Cloud City in the third act. In the first draft script by Leigh Brackett, Luke and Han are riding unnamed snow lizards (later dubbed tauntauns) when Luke decides he wants to go off on his own to investigate "a pretty ice formation." The concept of an Imperial probe in search of Rebel forces that crashes onto the ice world's surface and draws Luke's attention didn't appear until a later draft by George Lucas, who took over the writing chores with Lawrence Kasdan after Brackett's death

While shooting the ice planet Hoth sequences in a wintery Norway, the production was at one point overwhelmed by a massive snowstorm and sub-zero temperatures. Unable to dig out, the crew actually positioned the camera in the back doorway of the hotel where they were staying and shot the scene where Luke stumbles through the snow after defeating the Wampa. Later, when filming the hangar doors of the Rebel base slamming shut, director Irvin Kershner added the bit where Chewbacca wails in agony - a detail that wasn't in the shooting script.

The idea behind Yoda was the wizened old man archetype from myths and legends. In the first draft, he was known as Minch and stood only two feet tall. He eventually grew a bit to a whopping 28 inches. Director Irvin Kershner had a different idea at first: He envisioned a nine-foot-tall giant with a long, flowing beard. Another idea was to use a monkey with animated lips. Makeup artist Stuart Freeborn came up with the character's face, which was apparently something of a self-portrait. The final puppet was controlled by Frank Oz (who also did the voice) and a small team of operators who were underground watching Yoda's performance on monitors.

Originally dreamed up as "a new Han Solo character," Lando Calrissian went through many permutations. One of the more interesting was that he's one of the few remaining clones to survive the Clone Wars, which you may recall were mentioned in the first Star Wars in Leia's holographic message and again by Luke when he first talks with Ben. The gist was that Ben fought for Leia's father in that conflict, ostensibly against the clones. Since Lando's race was all but exterminated, this would have given Leia an obvious reason not to trust him. When the clone idea was dropped, Leia had to find a different reason to distrust him: Like the fact that Billy Dee Williams plays him as a slimy riverboat gambler type who probably cheats badly at cards.