Discussion

Jenny Brown George lucas wanted steven Spielberg to direct and Spielberg was more than happy to but the problem was that lucas had resigned from the directors guild of America over fines imposed by the union for his violating crediting rules on the empire strikes back by not crediting Irwin kershner in the opening at all but still crediting himself via the Lucasfilms logo according to deal rules lucas was now running a official non-union shop and no dga director such as Spielberg would be permitted to join such a production without penalty david lynch turned down a offer to direct feeling that his and lucas styles and visions would end up clashing Spielberg at one point considered suggesting to lucas to have the then up and coming director Paul verhoeven to direct the film but quickly decided against it after seeing some of his other work verhoeven commented ( I suppose that he was scared that the jedi would immediately start f***ing) (the guy at the time was known for art house films, comedys,erotic romance dramas, biographys, romantic war thrillers, psychological erotic thrillers,action shows,erotic film tragiccomic romantic comedys and epic war films)David cronenberg was asked to direct but he turned it down in favor of the dead zone and videodome Terry Gillian was another candidate to direct as he wasn't in the guild and was in England

Jenny Brown Prior to the making of this film mark Hamill speculated that it would have involved luke turning to the dark side with the main conflict being generated by whether or not he will turn back

Jenny Brown Harrison Ford initially only signed on to 2 starwars movies his character han was carbon frozen at the end of empire a fate intended to allow the possibility of a third without him incase negotiations fell through however before production Howard kazanjian told George lucas that he could convince Ford to come back he made a deal with ford's agent good enough to get Harrison to do the final movie so han was written back into the story even after agreeing to be in the film Harrison Ford wanted han to make a heroic sacrifice to give the film a little extra weight kasdan concurred planning to make it happen during a raid on an imperial base near the third act but lucas vetoed it because he wanted the story to end on a happier note and because toy sales would have suffered with a dead han

Jenny Brown In lucas initial plans for the franchise, the emperor would not appear in till episode ix (another version possibly a posterior version of the script called for the emperor appering yet surviving at the end) in line with those plans leia would be the queen of her people and luke would walk into the sunset like Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti westerns (as remarked by Gary kurtz)to spend time in seclusion ultimately creating a more bitter sweet ending it would have led to another 3 movies that would have been about luke becoming a jedi master discovering his sister who wouldn't have been leia as their brief kiss in the previous film shows and finally defeating the emperor and the empire along with him in ix however after filming empire lucas decided he didn't want to film 6 more films to finish the story he wanted to finally be able to see his friends and family once in a while and changed vi to be a more simplistic retelling of a new hope to end things once and for all

Jenny Brown The script described a little more detail about Luke and leias mom she was disguised as a leias adoptive parents' handmaid and died when leia was about 4. This was partly cannon until episode 3 it was then retconed that the handmaid was actually sabe padmes handmaid/decoy from the phantom menace played by Keira knightly amusingly in 2018 mark Hamill revealed he had an idea of revealing that boba fett was Luke's mother and a double agent secretly working for the rebels basically kinda a Samus thing but lucas didn't like it

Jenny Brown Originally, dagobah and Yoda were not meant to appear again, but marquand talked lucas into writing them in to properly confirm to Luke as to whether vader was his father or not lucas only became convinced to do so after a child psychologist who told him young moviegoers might come to believe vader had lied

Jenny Brown The original plan for native allies on endor was not ewoks but a band of escaped wookiee slaves. However, lucas wanted the battle to be fought "old school" with bows and arrows and wookiees already had advanced technology (ironic considering the essential guide to warfare implication that the ewoks stole various dead stormtroopers blasters and used them against the imperials) he then decided to cut them in half and call them ewoks the ewoks were accompanied by the yuzzums both species went through different designs more resembling creatures from folklore such as trolls some versions were gangly with elongated legs and arms some had an elongated nose ,a beak or a pig snout some designs lacked fur and some more had a more pug like face and would not be mistaken for a teddybear at least one yuzzum made it into the film as a background alien in Jabbas palace named was lufba a second cgi yuzzum named Jon yowza was latter added to the expanded jedi rocks Musical number in the special edition

Jenny Brown Originally moff jerjerrod the sort of whiny overseer of the deathstars construction was written as grand moff jerjerrod he was Palpatines personal representative and schemed with him to turn luke and betray vader when vader finds out he breaks jerjerrods neck from this important role he was reduced to just another imperial flunkey with a minor connection to the emperor the final script nonetheless included scenes of jerjerrod being ordered to destroy endor by the emperor should the shield fall but hesitating to actually go through with it allowing Lando time to destroy the stations main reactor said scenes were filmed but ultimately cut

Jenny Brown Instead of the endor moon imperial base the final battle of the film would have been the imperial capital an overly polluted planet named had abbadon which was orbited by two death stars( later reduced to only one)and a paradise like green moon named jus-endor the emperor would consult with vader and jerjerrod in the throne room in had abbadon surrounded by a lava pit also also general Maximilian veers from empire strikes back would have reappeared to command had abbadon garrison and personally lead the battle on the moon

Jenny Brown In the final battle ben kenobi and yoda would appear alive and physical to taunt the emperor with ben being struck by the emperors lighting instead of vader despite claiming that they came back to help luke fight vader and the emperor they would just stand and watch as luke and vader duelled commenting on the battle yoda would prevent vader from becoming one with the force allowing annikin to appear and describe his fall to the dark side and vader and the emperor would fall into the lava pit obi wan would explain how they escaped being pulled into the force in order not to lose their identity how he blamed himself for everything that happened and that owan was his brother

Jenny Brown Another proposed ending would have had luke putting on vaders helmet vowing to destroy the rebel fleet and rule the galaxy than aiming the death star at had abbadon and destroying it

Jenny Brown After the final story was redacted the millennium falcon was originally going to be blown up along with the death star 2 which is briefly alluded to in the finished film with han having a funny feeling he'll never see the falcon again before leaving endor according to a rumor Lando was considered to die with the ship but Lucasfilm has denied it

Jenny Brown Luke's second lightsaber originally planned to be blue just like his first one and it's even depicted as blue in some jedi promotional material it was changed to green late in production in order to make it better stand out against the blue sky during the barge fight sequence on tattoine

Jenny Brown There are several women among the rebel pilots seen during the briefing aboard home one (one can be seen just behind Landos shoulder in his conversation with han) who never actually appear in the actual battle sequence though at least three were known to have filmed cockpit scenes for the battle one of these actresses did survive into the final cut of the film one of a-wing pilots is actually a woman redubbed by a male actor the most significant cut was french model and actress vivienne chandler who played an unnamed female x wing pilot later named dorovio bold what made her cut surprising was that it appeared she would have played a significant role in the battle as she recorded over a full page of dialogue ( in which she makes a distress call about a fatally demaged stableizer) suggests she would have been killed after crashing much like red leader had in the original film its unclear exactly why the women were cut but it's been speculated there were concerns that audiences would be made uncomfortable by the thought of women being killed during a battle sequence

Jenny Brown The visually distinct b-wing fighters apparently had a substantial amount of footage filmed for use during the final battle However it was realized that the fighters thin profile meant that it was incredibly difficult to pick up on the screen so all shots of the b wings in action where cut after the rebels break off when they realize the shield is still up

Jenny Brown ilm effects technicians devised a way to show the death star 2s outer hull disintegrating before the station exploded but ran out of time to actually implement thew effect it would instead be used in the destruction of the Uss enterprise in the following years star wars film the search for spock

Jenny Brown Oolas actress said there was originally a longer scene of her escaping the rancorwith some intended foreshadowing but it was never filmed due to time and budgeting

Jenny Brown Due to fans negative reaction to boba fetts anticlimactic death lucas contemplated adding a scene to the 1997 special edition where boba escapes the sarlacc pit alive he ultimately decided not to as he believed that doing so would give the viewers false hope that boba would show up later in the film boba did survive in legends and the same is true in the new cannon with boba reappearing in the mandalorian and the escape itself being depicted in the book of fett

Jenny Brown The actress for a background character named jess stated that she would have taken part in oolas dance sequence but due to issues this was regulated to a scene in a fanfilm by Warwick Davis

Jenny Brown The scene of luke burning his fathers armor was a late addition to the film shot on Skywalker ranch after the end of principal photography it was added because lucas became worried that audiences might think luke had abandoned his father on the death star