Wampa The wampa , or wampa ice creature , was a carnivorous , white - furred species living on the planet Hoth . Biology and appearance . Standing at a height of three meters tall and with an average mass of 150 kilograms , the wampa was one of Hoth ' s top carnivorous predators . While hunting , the wampa would ambush and stun its prey , then drag it back to its cave , hang it upside down and devour the prey whenever it needed . History . Throughout galactic history , Trandoshan hunters often kept trophies such as wampa hide at lodges such as on Wasskah . During her childhood Jyn Erso owned a doll resembling a wampa . In his palace Grakkus the Hutt owned , among other creatures , a wampa ice creature . With the establishment of Echo Base on the remote ice world of Hoth , vicious wampas would occasionally sneak into the base in the dead of night , forcing the closure of various passageways . In an occasion the rebel Leia Organa , the Wookiee Chewbacca and the Astromech droid R2 - D2 were involved in that similar situation . Shortly before the Battle of Hoth , Rebel Alliance member Luke Skywalker was attacked by a wampa while scouting the Hoth ice wastes with his tauntaun . It feasted on the tauntaun after hanging Luke from the ceiling of its cave . Luke used the Force to retrieve his lightsaber , which had fallen into the snow , and used it to free himself . The wampa noticed and tried to intervene , however Luke cut off its arm . During the Battle of Hoth , several cold weather assault stormtrooper s were slain by a wampa after opening a door to a room with a clearly marked warning sign . Behind the scenes . From concept to creation . The wampa ice creature was created for George Lucas ' s and first appeared in Donald F . Glut ' s of the film , just prior to its theatrical debut . The creature may have been based on the phenomenon of the " , " or the " Abominable Snowman , " a humanoid beast believed to live in the . Notes from early concept meetings suggest that the wampa , like the Yeti , may have supernatural powers as well . In early story discussions , the wampa was described as a fishlike beast capable of swimming through the snow , and the creatures were intended to be inside of the base where the Rebels were hiding , creating chaos when Vader is approaching to begin his attack on the base . In the winter of 1977 , Mark Hamill was in a serious car accident that left him in need of reconstructive facial surgery . Many believe that the wampa attack on Skywalker was included in the film to explain Hamill ' s residual scarring and slightly altered facial features . Some of the earliest production drawings of Echo Base ' s interior from May 1978 include call - outs indicating where a " Yuzzem " is to break through the ice walls of the base , as seen in " " . The concept of the now non - canon Yuzzem creature was introduced into " Star Wars " canon in Alan Dean Foster ' s novel " Splinter of the Mind ' s Eye " , published on March 1 , 1978 , before the production drawings were created . This suggests that the creature that came to be known as the wampa was first referred to as a " Yuzzem , " until Foster adapted the name for his story . To create the wampa ' s roar , sounds effects artist Randy Thom recorded the noises made by an in the . Sound designer Ben Burtt and the film ' s sound team then recorded the cries of a at public oceanarium and mixed that on top of the elephant recording to produce the final effect . Production struggles . Originally the wampa was to be portrayed by actor Des Webb wearing a giant suit made of sheepskins on location in , where the Hoth scenes were shot . The costume , which required the actor to stand on stilts , proved too unwieldy , and it was too heavy and hot , causing Webb to suffer heat exhaustion . All of the shots of the life - size wampa were eventually cut from the film . Creature designer Phil Tippett later built a small wampa hand puppet , visible in a quick close - up as the creature attacks Luke Skywalker . For the " Special Edition " release of " The Empire Strikes Back " in 1997 , George Lucas decided to expand the wampa scenes . In order to do so , Industrial Light & Magic artist Howie Weed constructed a more mobile version of the costume , without the stilts , which he wore in the film . The new shots were filmed within a scaled - down replica of a cave to create the illusion that the wampa was much larger than a normal Human . Additional scenes . Wampas originally played a much more prominent role in early versions of " The Empire Strikes Back " . In the treatment and the first draft , wampas storm Echo Base shortly before the arrival of the Empire . In the original shooting script , a tauntaun was killed when a wampa stormed into Echo Base . Shots of a wampa breaking through one of the walls of the complex and attacking Rebel soldiers were filmed but ultimately dropped from the final version of the movie . In addition , the wall did not crumble properly and the shot was never successfully achieved . Final versions of the script depicted a mass - coordinated wampa attack on Echo Base . There were several scenes shot for the film that showed this incident , as well as a sequence involving C - 3PO tearing a warning sign off the door of a wampa pen , followed by a group of snowtroopers entering the pen only to be attacked by the wampas inside . However , these scenes were later deleted and did not make the final version of the film . In the 2015 reference book " " , the deleted scenes involving the wampa attack on Echo Base were brought back somewhat . With it being stated that various wampas would attack Echo Base at night , and that several Imperial Cold weather assault stormtrooper s foolishly entered a room with wampas only to be slain , despite a clearly marked warning sign saying otherwise .