"In the original Empire Strikes Back, only a few shots of the Wampa were made. George Lucas wanted to make the scene more suspenseful, and the scene was reshot with more cave shots. This allowed us to show what a vile, horrid, terrible vicious beast the Wampa really is."
A complete Wampa suit was built and an actor in the suit performed the primary action. Additional cheek, brow, and eye movement was puppeteered via remote cable mechanisms.An ice cave was constructed at less than full scale so that the Wampa would appear larger than 1 to 1. The ice cave was of foam-over-foil construction. Cast plastic icicles added to the look.
One scene - shot low from behind the Wampa's knee - was a blue screen shot composited over an original plate of Luke hanging from the ceiling of the Wampa's cave.
