It's no secret that George Lucas considered making his Luke Skywalker character a girl. Copies of various drafts and synopses can be found at the Bendu Jedi website. Although none of these mention a female Luke, there is a female representation in one of Ralph McQuarrie's concept paintings published in 1977. He even makes a brief comment about Lucas's idea in the text that accompanies the image in The Star Wars Portfolio.

However, The Art of Star Wars, published at the same time, but does not mention this concept even though many of the sketches of Luke do show Feminine traits. It was not until the publication of J W Rinzler's The Making of Star Wars to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the launch of the film, that anything official was mentioned about the subject.

Apparently, Lucas's original synopsis and draft script were considered too long for a feature film at that time. Lucas wrote a second draft that cut out a lot of the original plot, with the intention of making a series of sequels. This resulted in what is now recognised as the second draft. Although there is a character called Leia in the story, she only is only in a few scenes near the beginning as Leia Lars the daughter of Owen Lars. It is hinted that she is the love interest for Luke, but is left behind whilst Luke goes off to rescue his brother, Deak, who has been captured by Darth Vader.

Lucas quickly realised the script lacked a female leading character. The quickest solution apparently was to change Luke's gender. Given that this character was never given a name, it is assumed that the idea was not a serious one. However, Ralph McQuarrie's painting of a solitary Luke looking down on Mos Eisley clearly shows him with female features. Lucas would not have given permission for this if he had not seriously considered the idea.

Therefore, it didn't happen, no genders were swapped. Is that really the case? It is commonly assumed that Leia was reinstated as the princess she had been in the first draft. The end of the second draft mentions the proposed appearance of a princess in the sequel. However, we have all been over looking Deak Starkiller, Luke's brother. Apart from the opening battle where he sends R2D2 off on his mission, he spends most of the time in the clutches of Darth Vader. That is until he is rescued by Luke and Han Solo. Sound familiar? I think Lucas did change a character's gender, but it wasn't Luke's it was Deak's.

After the second draft, Luke no longer has a brother. In the second draft, he has three. The other two being much younger and play little part in the story. Everything that happened to Deak happens to Leia in subsequent versions. Although, Leia's part is beefed up a bit, she doesn’t spend as much time unconscious as Deak. She is also able to take the lead at several points.  Not forgetting the revalation in Return of the Jedi that Leia is Luke's sister. 

The Leia of the original movie is definitely not the typical damsel in distress. However, she is not shown to be the kick ass heroine that broke the mould with Alien's Ellen Ripley. Therefore, it is not surprising many still wonder what Star Wars would have been like if Luke had become Leia Starkiller.