Inspired by Mark Hamill himself, the wampa from The Empire Strikes Back gets a sympathetic reimagining In a new Star Wars anthology book.
Remember that iconic scene in The Empire Strikes Back where Luke Skywalker is captured by the Star Wars universe’s equivalent of the abominable snow man? He’s riding his tauntaun across the ice planet Hoth, trying to track down a fallen imperial satellite when BOOM, a monster jumps out of the snow, knocks him off his mount, and drags both Luke and his tauntaun back to its cave for dinner. It’s only due to Luke’s Force abilities that he’s able to retrieve his fallen lightsaber in time to ward off the beast before it can devour him.
That monster — called the wampa — is on screen for less than five minutes, yet it’s a creature that has enjoyed a great deal of love from the fandom. There’s just something about that horned, clawed, massive ice creature that captures the imagination. And it’s not just the fans who love the wampa: George Lucas even added some extra scenes with it when he remastered the original trilogy in 1997.
Well, it turns out the wampa will get another shot at fame, this time as the hero of his own short story. Today, a new Star Wars short story anthology hits shelves from Del Rey Books. From A Certain Point Of View: The Empire Strikes Back is a collection of tales told from the point of view of characters who wouldn’t normally get their own stories: supporting characters, villains, even droids and the aforementioned ill-fated wampa. The book has a veritable who’s who of huge authors, from Martha Wells (Murderbot) to Christie Golden (more Warcraft books than can be counted) to Deliliah S. Dawson, Mike Chen, R.F. Kuang, Hank Green, Daniel José Older, Django Wexler and a ton of other great writers. It’s been 40 years since Empire’s theatrical release, and there are a whopping 40 stories between the covers of From A Certain Point of View.
The wampa’s story, “Hunger,” is written by Mike Oshiro, author of Anger Is a Gift and Each Of Us a Desert. Oshiro explores why the wampa is attacking the rebel bases, painting this pretty one-dimensional creature from the movies in a far more sympathetic light. He talked with SyFy Wire about why he wanted to reimagine the wampa:
"I wanted to go weird and to write a story from someone who normally wouldn’t get a point-of-view. I only pitched two characters: Willrow Hood, the human character carrying a camtono during the evacuation of Cloud City, and the wampa. They were both characters I was obsessed with as a kid and wished I knew more about."
According to Oshiro, the inspiration for the story came from two places. The first are extra scenes from Empire Strikes Back that were ultimately left on the cutting room floor, which would have shown wampas attacking the Rebel base on Hoth. The other was this comment made by Mark Hamill in 2017, where he was replying to fans talking about the wampa on Twitter:
When filming scene I was assured my lightsaber swipe toward camera (creature not on set) would simply singe fur 2 scare him off-Horrified to later see amputation & unnecessary cruelty-Wampa was HUNGRY (not EVIL)-Luke would never do this! #StillAngry2017 https://t.co/QhIkOILZmw
— Mark Hamill (@MarkHamill) November 27, 2017
“That’s the idea I ran with,” said Oshiro. “Let’s dig into the wampa’s hunger: how did it come about? So, I connected the two dots: Why are the wampas attacking people on the base? Why was that one so hungry? The whole story came together pretty quickly. The joy of the first From A Certain Point of View anthology was how incredible it was to have a scene given a new context with a different perspective. I wanted to show that the wampas’ desire for home, family, and sustenance — things humans can relate to — were accidentally threatened by this very moral act. We obviously want the Rebels to win, and they had a good reason to hide on Hoth. Yet sometimes, even with the purest intent, we hurt other people. In this case, the Rebels displaced a family and had no idea.”
Poor Wampa just couldn’t catch a break.
From A Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back is out now!
To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.
Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels