Return of the Jedi/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Acting for Two: Besides R2-D2, Kenny Baker also portrayed Paploo, the Ewok who stole an Imperial speeder bike.
  • Awesome, Dear Boy: Averting the Old Shame trope as noted below, Sebastian Shaw, the actor who portrayed redeemed and unmasked Anakin Skywalker, has praised two previous Star Wars movies and enjoyed them particularly for the visual effects, which he described in an interview with science-fiction film magazine Starlog as "brilliant techniques which, in many ways, were revolutionary, something quite new."
  • Cast the Expert: The reason why the redeemed and unmasked Anakin Skywalker was portrayed by Sebastian Shaw, instead of David Prowse who portrayed the masked Darth Vader, is because the redemption and unmasking scene is the emotional climax of the film, so the casting crew wanted an experienced actor for the role.
  • Deleted Scenes: Moff Jerjerrod got quite a few that expanded his character a bit (not to mention made Palpatine more monstrous than before). In particular, the deleted scenes were of a subplot and some conflict for the Moff: at some point during Luke and Vader's duel, Palpatine contacted Moff Jerjerrod by comlink and told him that, should the Rebel Alliance somehow succeed in getting past the defenses of the shield generator and destroy it, Jerjerrod will turn the Death Star towards the planet and fire the superlaser to destroy it, with Jerjerrod, while nonetheless processing the command, expressed reluctance at killing his own men on Endor before being silenced by Palpatine. Afterwards, Lieutennant Endicott informed Jerjerrod about the shield generator's destruction, causing Jerjerrod to reluctantly obey Palpatine's command. He also orders for several attempts to delay Red and Gold Squadrons from entering the superstructure, and lastly hesitates briefly before ordering the countdown. These scenes were largely retained in the novelization, for anyone curious, although Jerjerrod's characterization is changed to the opposite of what it was in the film.
  • Old Shame: This is averted for unlike Alec Guinness, Sebastian Shaw always said that he had a splendid time playing Anakin Skywalker. After all, it was an easy role that paid well for him, and he found that having an action figure made in his likeness was a delightful surprise.
  • The Other Marty: Anakin's Force ghost in the special edition DVDs. Sebastian Shaw's appearance is removed and replaced by Hayden Christensen. This was a huge point of contention among the saga's fans, as the younger Anakin doesn't interact as well with Yoda and Obi-Wan as the older Anakin did. Christensen mentioned in an interview that he didn't fully know what George Lucas was up to, otherwise he would have played the scene totally different.
  • Serendipity Writes the Plot: Luke's new lightsaber was originally going to be blue, as Obi-Wan's and Anakin's had. This showed up on a poster and even in some early screenshots and trailers. However, the special effects team realized that this wouldn't look good against the blue sky on Tatooine during the scene on Jabba's barge, so it was made green, thus codifying the idea that the Jedi usually have blue or green lightsabers while the Sith use red.
  • Troubled Production: As for the final part of the original trilogy, creating Return of the Jedi may not have been as contentious as A New Hope or The Empire Strikes Back, but the production crew certainly faced their own problems according to J.W. Rinzler's "Making of Return of the Jedi" book:
    • The producer of the previous two films, Gary Kurtz, split up with Lucasfilm due to a combo of the budget overruns on The Empire Strikes Back and his dislike of the direction Lucas was taking the series with the film, such as his belief that Lucas was playing it safe by rehashing the Death Star conflict, putting more emphasis on special effects than story, and trying to play up the merchandising angle of the movie more with characters like the Ewoks (ironically, the toys for the latter creatures did rather poorly in merchandise sales).
    • During pre-production, Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan would constantly argue over story beats and setpieces, with both of them getting into heated discussions over whether to scrap Endor entirely in favor of setting the climactic battle on Had Abbadon, the supposed Imperial "home planet".
    • Richard Marquand was brought on as director after several of Lucas' planned choices didn't pan out, and they ran into frequent conflicts during filming. Not only was Lucas constantly on-set when Marquand directed, but the former would often give the actors advice contrary to Marquand's direction.
    • Likewise, Marquand alienated several of the actors, with both Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill accusing the director of treating them terribly while simultaneously fawning over Harrison Ford's performance.
    • Principal photography was beset with numerous delays and clashes between Lucas and Marquand, with the former wanting to use multiple cameras during each take so he could have more material in the editing room, and the latter wanting only one or two cameras with no fallback option. The filmmakers inadvertantly used old film stock that caused many shots to have a bizarre blue tint, which forced ILM to fix the color timing on many shots in post-production. At a certain point, Lucas essentially took over the majority of directing duties from Marquand.
    • Lucas also ran into budget problems as a result of ensuring his loan with 20th Century Fox after the release of The Empire Strikes Back, to the point of interfering with filming. Marquand had to beg Lucas for a Rancor hand prop to be constructed so that close-ups of Hamill could be filmed.
    • The infamous "Black Friday" incident, where 100,000 feet of film stock containing effects shots that couldn't be read in an optical printer were unceremoniously dumped by Lucas himself. The crew at ILM were forced to go back to the drawing board and start again from scratch, with many getting drunk when they heard the news.
    • Ralph McQuarrie became burned out because of his constant work on the film and his hatred of the Ewok concept, and walked away from the production.
    • Cinematographer Alan Hume, who was angered over Lucas' treatment of Marquand, informally stepped away from his duties, leaving camera operator Alec Mills to finish filming in the last month of production.
    • The first screening of the film (using an early cut) was reportedly a disaster, with Lucas deriding the editing and the fact that it didn't feel like a Star Wars film. Eventually, one of the film editors, Sean Barton, did his own cut that Lucas preferred a lot more, and it was this cut that the final version was crafted from.
  • What Could Have Been:
    • The name is originally titled Revenge of the Jedi in both posters and even the teaser trailer before Lucas changed the title a few weeks before the premier (as Jedi do not seek Revenge).
      • Oddly enough, the Japanese dub keep the Revenge part in the title until the Special Edition dubs.
    • George Lucas wanted Steven Spielberg to direct. The problem was that Lucas had resigned from the Director's Guild of America over fines imposed by the union for his violating crediting rules on The Empire Strikes Back (i.e. not having credits in the opening at all — the DGA let the infraction slide on A New Hope as they, as most of Hollywood thought the film would tank). According to DGA rules, Lucas was now running an officially non-union shop, and no DGA director, such as Spielberg, would be permitted to join such a production without penalty. The same situation caused Gary Oldman to turn down the role of General Grievous for Revenge of the Sith.
    • David Lynch turned down George Lucas's request for him to direct Return of the Jedi. Before approaching Lynch, Lucas wanted Steven Spielberg to direct, but because Lucas was no longer part of the Director's Guild, he couldn't get him.
    • The original plan for "native allies on Endor" was not Ewoks, but instead a band of escaped Wookiee slaves. But Lucas wanted the battle to be fought "old school" with bows and arrows and Wookiee's had advanced technology. So he decided to "Cut them in half and call them Ewoks." Also, Kenny Baker (the little guy who was inside R2 making him shake) was supposed to play Wicket but he fell sick for most of the production and that's when Warwick Davis stepped into the role.
    • The script described a little more detail about Luke and Leia's mother. She was disguised as Leia's adoptive parents' maidens. She died when Leia is about 4. This was partially canon until Episode III.
    • There was an early script where The Falcon doesn't Outrun the Fireball and gets destroyed along with the Death Star II.
    • Prior to the making of the 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'll be turned back. A similar plot thread eventually re-emerged in the Dark Empire serial.
    • Originally Moff Jerjerrod, the sort-of whiny overseer of the Death Star's construction, was written as Grand Moff Jerjerrod, and was Palpatine's personal representative, and schemed with him to turn Luke and betray Vader. When Vader finds out he breaks Jerjerrod's neck. From this important role he was reduced to just another Imperial flunkey with on a minor connection to the Emperor.
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