Changes in Star Wars re-releases
These alterations range from minor refinements (such as color grading and audio mixing) to major changes (such as the insertion of new dialogue, characters, and visual effects).
These changes were largely made as visual effects tests for the forthcoming prequel films, demonstrating the possibilities of computer-generated imagery (CGI).
[4][5] Lucas stated:People who alter or destroy works of art, and our cultural heritage, for profit or as an exercise of power are barbarians ... Today, engineers with their computers can ... add or subtract material to the philosophical taste of the copyright holder.
Writing in Wired magazine, Drew Stewart claimed the rationale for the added content was to illustrate the extent of the Empire's search, but criticized the new shots as "people wandering aimlessly.
[18][44][l] Some of the aliens in the cantina were replaced with new CGI characters, and a shot of the Millennium Falcon fighting its way out of Mos Eisley was added.
[39][60][61] Lucas intended to replace Mulholland in post-production with a stop-motion character, but due to time limitations and budget constraints, the entire scene was cut.
[61][62] To explain Jabba's mobility despite his sluglike form, artist Claudia Mullaly conceived of repulsorlifts (one of which he sits upright in), but this concept was dropped.
[39][67][61] On the 2004 DVD audio commentary for A New Hope, Lucas said that while he did not mind cutting the scene when he was not sure if he could make sequels, he reintroduced it because Jabba is important to Han's larger story arc.
[12][72] The Special Edition of A New Hope incorporated a deleted scene on Yavin 4, in which Luke is briefly reunited with his childhood friend Biggs Darklighter.
[79][80][p] The scene also included the appearance of Red X-Wing Squadron Leader Garven Dreis, an addition that pleased his actor Drewe Henley although his credit remained not corrected.
[12] Christopher Miller, who later worked on Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), claimed that he played a stormtrooper added to the film's Special Edition while an intern at Lucasfilm.
[18][q] For his appearance as a hologram in The Empire Strikes Back, the Emperor was originally portrayed by masked actress Marjorie Eaton and voice actor Clive Revill.
[18] Sources such as Polygon and io9 regard the actor replacement itself as logical,[52][80] and Screen Rant praises it as "a change that blends seamlessly with the original film, due in large part to the relative ease of swapping one holographic image for another".
[18][t] In the 1997 edition, the scene of Luke dropping down the chute to escape Vader was modified to include an audible scream—created using the sound of the Emperor screaming as he falls down the shaft in Return of the Jedi; this received criticism and was removed in later releases.
[18] Following the initial limited theatrical release, Lucas added three exterior shots to the denouement to clarify that Lando and Chewbacca are on the Falcon, not the Rebel frigate that Luke, Leia, and the droids are on.
The scene in which Jabba feeds the dancer Oola to his rancor opens with a performance by the Max Rebo Band and its lead singer, Sy Snootles.
[80] Conversely, Den of Geek UK criticized the additions as unnecessary and felt that they made the audience familiar with the pit, weakening Luke's scene.
[60] In 2004, Lucas revealed that he had considered adding a shot of Fett escaping the sarlacc, but decided against it because it would have detracted from the scene's focus: Jabba's death.
[28] The extended podrace includes a longer introduction of the racers and the second lap of the race,[119] which Screen Rant says does not contribute to the story, and potentially negatively affects the film's pacing.
[120][121] This was changed for the 2011 release, with the puppet being replaced with a CGI model, similar to those used for the film's sequels, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.
[60][39][12][18] In 2015, Lance Ulanoff of Mashable viewed the original theatrical print of Star Wars submitted to the Library of Congress, and noted merit to Lucas's belief that technology did not allow him to achieve his vision, citing a visible marquee around Leia's ship "so jarring that it temporarily pulls me out of the film" because the original print is "lack[ing] the seamless quality [he has] come to expect from sci-fi and fantasy".
[80] A 2015 Polygon article claimed there was "solid logic" behind a number of the minor changes, such as adding windows to Cloud City or sparks to Jango Fett's jetpack, saying these "angered, to a close approximation, nobody".
[79][80][72][18] In 2021, Screen Rant praised special effects additions to A New Hope, including the CGI Dewback replacement, the Mos Eisley establishing shots, and the explosions of Alderaan and the Death Star.
But actually adding scenes that don't make any difference ... and all of those digitally enhanced shots of robots floating around and creatures walking through the frame ... call attention to themselves.
[145] For instance, Sebulba is unrendered in a brief shot in The Phantom Menace, which special-effects supervisor John Knoll called attention to in the film's 2001 DVD commentary.
Craig Elvy of Screen Rant said, "This highlights how George Lucas' motivations for tweaking the Star Wars movies are more about improving and updating than removing imperfections".
[146] In 2019, Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm since the 2012 acquisition of the company by Disney, stated that she would not make alterations to Lucas's original trilogy, because "those will always remain his.
"[147] While promoting The Rise of Skywalker, director J. J. Abrams expressed his hopes that the original versions of the trilogy would be officially released, but said that the powers that be had told him "that that's not necessarily possible".
"[149] Contrarily, some media outlets have called for the climax of The Rise of Skywalker to be altered to show the Force ghosts of the Jedi who aid Rey.
"[155] At the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, Lucas again refused to allow the release of the original cuts, repeating his previous statements with, "I'm a firm believer that the director or the writer or the filmmaker should have a right to have his movie be the way he wants it.
