Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi
Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, also known simply as Return of the Jedi, is a 1983 motion picture helmed by Richard Marquand and penned by Lawrence Kasdan together with George Lucas, who also conceived the story. It serves as the concluding chapter of the Star Wars original trilogy.
Luke Skywalker, along with his allies, journeys to Tatooine with the objective to rescue their comrade Han Solo from the clutches of the nefarious Jabba the Hutt. The Galactic Empire is poised to obliterate the Rebel Alliance utilizing an even more formidable Death Star, prompting the Rebel fleet to launch a large-scale offensive against the space station. In a momentous final duel, Luke confronts his father, Darth Vader, before the malevolent Emperor.
The movie premiered on May 25, 1983, and was later distributed on VHS and LaserDisc formats on several occasions throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In 1997, the film was re-released with alterations, and this updated version was subsequently made available on VHS and LaserDisc. The special edition was introduced on DVD in 2004, featuring further enhancements and modifications compared to the 1997 versions. The initial, unaltered iteration of the movie was included as part of a DVD collection in September 2006. The film was rereleased in high definition on Blu-ray in September of 2011. In 2023, Return of the Jedi had a limited return to theaters in celebration of its 40th anniversary.
Opening crawl
Plot summary
Vader's arrival to the Death Star
Almost twelve months following the events of The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader arrives at the docking bay of the still-under-construction second Death Star, which the Empire engineered to be more potent than its predecessor. He is met by Moff Tiaan Jerjerrod, to whom he gives the order to expedite construction to ensure the Death Star's timely completion. Jerjerrod claims that more personnel are required, but quickly acquiesces to intensify efforts upon learning of the Emperor's impending visit.
Arriving at Jabba's Palace
In the meantime, Luke Skywalker and his companions have arrived on Tatooine with the intention of rescuing their friend Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt's desert palace.
Initially, the droids R2-D2 and C-3PO present themselves, bearing a holographic message from Skywalker requesting Solo's release. In exchange, the two droids are offered as gifts to the crime lord; Luke assures that both are diligent and will serve him well, to which Jabba silently agrees. However, once the message concludes, he declares that there will be no deal and that he won't relinquish his "favorite decoration." The two droids are then directed to their quarters, where EV-9D9 harshly reprimands them upon hearing of their capabilities. 3PO is assigned to be Jabba's interpreter, while R2 is tasked with maintaining the Khetanna.
That evening, the Max Rebo Band (fronted by Sy Snootles) provides entertainment for the Hutt's guests. Jabba, captivated by the graceful movements of his collared slave girl Oola, begins pulling on her chain and summoning her to his throne. Oola fearfully resists, and in response, Jabba presses a button on his throne, causing Oola to fall through a concealed trapdoor at the base of his throne, into the lair of the rancor monster, which promptly consumes her.
Saving Han Solo
Later, Princess Leia Organa (disguised as the bounty hunter Boushh) arrives with Chewbacca as her "prisoner" to claim a portion of the bounty Jabba had placed on Solo's head years prior. Following extensive negotiations (including Leia threatening Jabba with a thermal detonator), Jabba agrees to a deal and has Chewbacca imprisoned.
That night, Leia frees Han Solo from his carbonite encasement, and after revealing her identity, she kisses him. As they attempt to escape, they are apprehended by Jabba and his henchmen. Disregarding Han's pleas, Jabba has the captain imprisoned alongside Chewbacca. Although Lando Calrissian (disguised as one of Jabba's prison guards) attempts to discreetly leave with Leia, Jabba intervenes and orders a Gamorrean guard to bring Leia to him. Leia warns the Hutt that he will regret capturing the Rebels, but Jabba dismisses the threat and licks her face. Leia is compelled to become Jabba's newest slave girl, forced to wear a dancing costume and chained to the throne as a trophy.
Luke Skywalker arrives at the palace
Subsequently, Luke arrives at the palace. Jabba and most of his court are asleep, but are awakened by Bib Fortuna (who, in attempting to block the Jedi's entrance, is Force-tricked into welcoming him). Leia remains silent beside the Hutt, despite her growing hope upon seeing Luke. Luke demands that Jabba release Han and his other friends, but Jabba rejects the young Jedi's offer. Luke uses the Force to summon a nearby blaster and attempts to shoot Jabba, but the Hutt activates the trapdoor to protect himself, dropping the Jedi and an unfortunate guard into the rancor pit.
Following a battle with the rancor (which devours the fallen guard), Luke ultimately defeats the monster by crushing it under the gate of its compound, impaling its neck with the spikes at the bottom of the gate. He is then captured and brought before Jabba by his thugs. Jabba, enraged, chokes Leia until she falls back on his stomach, and orders the prisoners to be brought before him. Luke, Han, and Chewbacca are brought before Jabba, exchanging relief at each other's safety as Leia struggles with Jabba to sit upright before him.
Using C-3PO as a translator, Jabba sentences Luke and his friends to be taken to the Dune Sea for termination (over a course of a thousand years) by the man-eating sarlacc at the Great Pit of Carkoon. Leia is spared from execution since she is Jabba's favorite slave. As Jabba orders the prisoners to be taken away, Luke warns him that he's made his last mistake, at which the Hutt laughs in amusement.
Skirmish at the Great Pit of Carkoon
Jabba, accompanied by Leia and several of his thugs, travels to the Pit of Carkoon aboard his sail barge, while the prisoners are transported on a smaller skiff. En route, R2-D2 is tasked with serving drinks to Jabba's guests, and the Max Rebo Band provides background music. Jabba allows Leia to climb off his throne and watch her friends from a window. After a while, he gives a tug on her chain, playfully commanding her to come to him. Leia glares back at him and returns to watching, and Jabba chuckles. He later pulls her chain again, this time forcing her to run to him on his throne. Jabba then informs Leia that she will soon learn to appreciate him and makes her drink from his goblet.
Outside, Luke and his companions (with Lando, still in disguise) discuss their predicament. Han, still partially blinded from the side-effects of carbonization, is certain that they are all going to die, and Luke tries to reassure him of their ultimate safety, but Han is not easily convinced. Elsewhere in the sail barge, C-3PO literally runs into R2-D2 and knocks over the shorter droid's drink tray. C-3PO laments their friends' imminent deaths, but R2-D2 shows a kind of confidence, which C-3PO doesn't see any reason for.
When the vehicles ultimately reach the pit, Jabba has C-3PO announce the group's deaths, but that he is willing to now listen to their pleas. Han calls Jabba names and tells him that he'll not get any pleasure from their pleading, much to the Hutt's amusement, and Luke offers a final chance for Jabba to free him and his friends or die. Jabba and his guests laugh off this last threat and order the execution to commence. Luke gets ushered off of a plank and into the sarlacc, only to Force-flip up through the air and onto the skiff. Meanwhile, R2-D2 launches Luke's newly built lightsaber from a hidden panel in his housing, and Luke catches it and begins to attack his captors. As Jabba furiously orders his thugs to intervene, C-3PO gets knocked over. Leia looks around, ready to use her false submission to the Hutt to her advantage.
Boba Fett uses his jetpack to fly off of the barge and land on the skiff as Luke is in the act of freeing Han and Chewbacca. Luke uses his lightsaber to cut Fett's blaster in half, and Chewbacca pushes the bounty hunter onto the deck. Luke then jumps onto another of the accompanying skiffs to fight off the thugs there.
While fighting the skiff pilot, Lando falls off the side of the skiff, and although he manages to hold onto a wire, one of the sarlacc's tentacles begins to pull him to his death, and Han and Chewbacca have to carefully rescue him. Han accidentally activates Fett's backpack when he turns around and smashes the butt of an axe against it. Fett subsequently flies out of control from the skiff, crashing against the hull of the barge before falling into the sarlacc's open mouth, making it belch.
Aboard the sail barge, Leia smashes the controls for the sail barge's interior lights, plunging it into darkness, and proceeds to strangle Jabba with her chain, killing him. Leia jumps off of the throne and has R2-D2 help break her chain, then heads for the stairs to the top level of the sail barge. Meanwhile, Salacious B. Crumb attacks the fallen C-3PO, and R2-D2 uses the same device he'd freed Leia with to chase the lizard-monkey away. Reaching the surface, the droids jump off the edge of the sail barge and land in the Tatooinian sand.
Luke and Leia defeat the remaining thugs on the sail barge, then Luke has Leia point the gun toward the heart of the vehicle. They prepare to swing from a loose cable on the barge's sails, and Luke discharges the gun, beginning to destroy the barge. They swing to their rescue on the land skiff with Han, Lando, and Chewbacca, then use magnets to pick up the two droids from the sand. They all drive off just as the sail barge explodes.
Later, the crew departs Tatooine, all but Luke and R2-D2 headed for the rendezvous point near Sullust where the Rebel Alliance is assembling, while Luke and R2-D2 (in their X-wing) head for Dagobah to fulfill a promise to Yoda.
The Emperor arrives
On the second Death Star, the Emperor, Darth Sidious, arrives and praises Darth Vader on his efforts in the construction of the Death Star. He also senses that Vader craves the continuation of his search for his son, Luke. The old Sith Lord assures his apprentice that Luke will seek Vader out, that only together would the Sith be able to turn Luke to the dark side of the Force, and that everything was proceeding as the Emperor has foreseen.
Returning to Dagobah
Luke and R2-D2 arrive on Dagobah to find a terminally ill Yoda. Luke has returned to complete his Jedi training, but Yoda declares no further training is required. All that remains for Luke is to confront Vader. Yoda then reveals that Vader is indeed his father. The 900-year-old Jedi Master gives one last mention of wisdom to the young Jedi before he dies, disappearing in the way Obi-Wan Kenobi did aboard the first Death Star, thereby becoming one with the Force.
As Luke approaches his X-wing, the ghost form of Obi-Wan confirms that Vader was once Anakin Skywalker, a former Jedi Knight who turned to the dark side of the Force. Kenobi also reveals that Luke has a twin sister, hidden from Luke at birth as protection from the Emperor. Luke senses that his sister is Leia. Kenobi warns Luke to bury his feelings, for they could in time "serve the Emperor."
The mission begins
At the rendezvous point near Sullust, the Rebel Alliance gathers to reveal plans to attack the Death Star. As part of the plans, Luke, Leia, Solo, Chewbacca, C-3PO, R2-D2, and a strike team must penetrate the deflector shield generator on the forest moon of Endor in order to deactivate the shield if the Rebel fleet is to attack the Death Star. However, Vader knows this because he could sense that his son was with them and allows them to land on the planet. Luke senses his father as well and begins to believe that he has endangered the mission by coming.
The strike team lands on Endor only to be discovered by Imperial scout troopers. A speeder bike chase ensues, only for Leia to be thrown off her speeder and knocked unconscious. Luke and Han discover Leia's helmet, then they, with Chewbacca and the droids, try to find her. Leia is awakened by one of Endor's forest creatures, an Ewok named Wicket W. Warrick. Suddenly, another scout trooper discovers Leia, but Wicket does away with the trooper before rescuing Leia.
Luke, Han, Chewbacca, and the droids, meanwhile, fall into a booby trap set by the Ewoks. R2-D2 cuts open the net, setting them free, but the Ewok tribe discovers C-3PO and proclaims him to be their god. The droid's Human and Wookiee friends are taken prisoner, and the Ewoks proclaim Han to be the main course in a banquet in C-3PO's honor. Discovered by Leia, Luke then uses the Force to levitate C-3PO to show off his "great magic." Convinced of the Rebels' good intentions, the Ewoks set them free and later that evening make them "part of the tribe," thereby agreeing to join the fight against the Empire. But Luke decides the time has come to leave Endor and face Darth Vader. Leia follows Luke out of the tribal gathering, whereupon he tells her that Vader is his father and she is his sister. Leia is utterly shocked, but accepts the truth. She is comforted by Han Solo.
Meeting the Emperor
Vader arrives in his shuttle on a docking bay, and Luke, having already surrendered to the Empire, talks with Vader in an attempt to bring the Sith Lord out of the dark side of the Force, but to no avail. The Empire takes Luke into custody for transportation to the Death Star. The next day, the Rebels attempt to locate the shield generator, and the Rebel fleet enters hyperspace from Sullust to prepare for the final attack. Luke and Vader finally enter the Death Star and confront the Emperor, who looks forward to completing Luke's training and believes that while Vader would never turn from the dark side, neither would Luke. He also reveals that it was he who coordinated the Rebels finding the secret plans and locating the shield generator so that the Alliance can fall into a trap of Sidious' devising.
The Battle of Endor begins
The Rebels enter the heart of the shield generator, only to be taken prisoner by the Imperial forces. The fleet emerges from hyperspace for the battle, but discovers the shield is still up. As they contemplate their options, the Imperial fleet, which they were led to believe was away, appears and an intense battle begins. Han and the strike team are led out of the bunker by the stormtroopers, but the droids and the Ewoks have already orchestrated the attack on the Empire, and another intense battle commences with the Rebels and Ewoks on one side, the Empire on another. The Emperor shows Luke the full power of the Death Star as the station, now fully operational, destroys one of the Alliance's ships. Meanwhile, on Endor, the battle continues, with casualties (Rebel, stormtrooper, and Ewok) already mounting. Eventually, Han, Leia, and Chewbacca gain access to the bunker.
Duel between father and son
Back on the Death Star, Luke, with the encouragement of Darth Sidious, lashes out at him with his lightsaber, only to be deflected by Vader, and the final duel between father and son begins. As Luke climbs onto a balcony, Vader throws his lightsaber at his son. It misses Luke and knocks the balcony down, taking Luke with it. Vader stalks for a hidden Luke to let down his guard, while quietly sensing within his son's mind that Luke has a sister. Vader threatens to turn her to the dark side if Luke will not, prompting Luke to respond viciously in intense saber fighting, up to the point where Luke strikes off Vader's right mechanical hand. Sidious betrays Vader by encouraging Luke to take his father's place at his side, but Luke controls his anger and throws his lightsaber aside. He declares himself to be a Jedi Knight like his father Anakin had been before he turned to the dark side into Darth Vader.
Anakin's choice
Han, Leia, and Chewbacca escape from the bunker just in time for its destruction, thus bringing down the shield. The Alliance is now free to attack the half-completed Death Star. On the Death Star, the enraged Emperor declares that if Luke will not turn to the dark side, he will be destroyed, and uses Force lightning against the young Jedi. He revels in torturing Luke by slowly increasing the intensity of the lightning. Luke then cries out to his father to help him. As the Emperor prepares to deliver the killing bolts, Vader looks at Luke and then the Emperor, conflicted whether to save his son or to continue serving his master.
Moved by his son's cries for help and unwilling to see him die, Vader turns back to the light side as Anakin and lifts the Emperor into the air, carries him over and throws him into the Death Star's reactor shaft, killing him. However, in the process, Vader is struck by the Emperor's Force lightning, which enters his organic remains, striking his life support system and his respirator, mortally wounding him. The Millennium Falcon and its remaining Rebel fighters enter the bowels of the Death Star, and some fighters engage in a point-blank attack on the Super Star Destroyer, causing the Imperial flagship's destruction.
Anakin Skywalker's Death
On the Death Star, in the middle of the evacuation, Luke carries his father's ravaged body to the foot of an Imperial shuttle's ramp. Anakin stops Luke and asks him to remove his mask so that he can look upon the face of his son, just once, with his "own eyes."
Luke removes the mask and sees the face of his father for the first time. Anakin's face is revealed to have turned pale white and scaly, and his head retains some vicious scars after 23 years from his duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi on Mustafar.
Anakin tells Luke that his son was right—he did have good left in him, and asks him to tell his sister the same. With that, Anakin Skywalker, the redeemed Jedi Knight, smiles at his son and dies peacefully. Luke bows his head in sadness.
Knocking out the main reactor
The Millennium Falcon and its strike force (in the last Rebel fighter inside) reach the Death Star's main reactor and fire concussion missiles and proton torpedoes at it, causing it to collapse. Luke escapes the Death Star with his father's body and flies out through the flames, as do Wedge Antilles and the Millennium Falcon before the Death Star explodes.
Seeing the destruction from above, Han senses Leia's love for Luke. He offers to step aside when Luke arrives, but she tells Han that Luke is her brother. After a moment of speechless surprise, Han and Leia engage in a passionate kiss.
The big galaxy victory celebration
That evening in Endor, Luke sets a funeral pyre ablaze to cremate the body of his father, still encased in Darth Vader's outfit, per the Jedi funeral rite. His father's organic body becomes one with the Force. Through the rising flames and fireworks, Rebel fighters streak across the sky in celebration of one of the greatest Rebel victories in the Galactic Civil War.
The planets of Bespin, Tatooine, Naboo, and Coruscant are also part of the celebrations. Luke finds himself once more with his friends Han, Lando, the droids, Chewbacca, the surviving Rebel squadron, the Ewoks, and his sister, Leia. Subsequently, Luke observes the spectral forms of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, and Anakin Skywalker appearing before him. Luke is delighted: he is not only a Jedi now, but his father has returned to the good side of the Force. Leia and Luke rejoin their friends and comrades as the Force ghosts of Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Anakin look down upon them with pride.
Development
The project operated under the working title Blue Harvest for a multitude of reasons, and it was subtitled "Horror Beyond Imagination" to actively discourage interest, thereby concealing the true nature of the production from both fans and the media's watchful eyes. Following the success of The Empire Strikes Back, George Lucas severed all connections with the Hollywood system, feeling persecuted, and transitioned into a fully independent filmmaker. Despite George Lucas's prominence and influence, Lucasfilm, being a non-union company, faced increased difficulties and expenses in securing filming locations, according to Howard Kazanjian in Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy, even after the monumental successes of A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back.
The late Richard Marquand, who tragically died in 1987 from a heart condition, directed the film. However, accounts suggest that George Lucas maintained substantial involvement in the production of Return of the Jedi and likely took the helm of some second-unit work when the shooting schedule was in danger of running over. In the documentary Empire of Dreams, Lucas acknowledges that he frequently had to be on set due to Marquand's lack of experience with special effects. Nonetheless, Irvin Kershner, the director of The Empire Strikes Back, implied in that film's DVD audio commentary that Lucas, who served primarily as an advisor on The Empire Strikes Back, played a similar role in the production of Return of the Jedi. Further, Kershner stated that Lucas considered The Empire Strikes Back to be Kershner's film, not his own.
Some observers have pointed out differences between the directorial styles of Richard Marquand and Lucas, noting their dissimilarity. The screenplay was a collaborative effort between Lawrence Kasdan and Lucas, building upon Lucas's story, with uncredited contributions from David Webb Peoples. Howard G. Kazanjian took on the role of producer.
According to the documentary Empire of Dreams, George Lucas's initial intention was to title the film Return of the Jedi, but he changed it to Revenge of the Jedi after Lawrence Kasdan criticized "Return" as a weak title. However, on January 27, just months before the film's release, Lucas announced that the title would indeed be Return of the Jedi. In interviews, Lucas explained that the change was motivated by the idea that a Jedi would not seek revenge. However, many speculate that George Lucas had always planned to call the film Return of the Jedi and used "Revenge" merely as a tactic to deter counterfeiters of merchandise. It has also been suggested that the title was altered due to its similarity to the working title of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which was The Vengeance of Khan. Nicholas Meyer, the director, confirmed in William Shatner's autobiography Star Trek Movie Memories that he doubted 20th Century Fox would permit Paramount to change his film's title from The Undiscovered Country to The Vengeance of Khan due to the production of Revenge of the Jedi. Ultimately, this potential conflict was resolved when Star Trek II was renamed The Wrath of Khan and Revenge of the Jedi was finally released as Return of the Jedi. A portion of the working title was later repurposed for Episode III Revenge of the Sith.
Principal photography occurred from January 11 to May 20, 1982, at various locations, including the redwood forests of Redwood National Park in California, the Yuma desert in Arizona, and at Elstree Studios in the United Kingdom. The speeder bike chase sequence included the last shot to be completed. During production breaks, First Assistant Director David Tomblin collaborated with Warwick Davis on Return of the Ewok, a short film intended for promotional purposes. However, the project was never finished and is believed to be lost, with the only known copy being a VHS tape in Davis's possession, which Lucasfilm has since digitally archived.
Drew Struzan, the artist behind the Star Wars series, created the iconic and distinctive imagery for the movie posters and other promotional materials as part of a massive global marketing campaign. On the film's release poster, Luke Skywalker is shown wielding a blue lightsaber, a color that is not present in the actual film. His actual lightsaber is green, although it appears blue in one trailer, suggesting that the decision to change it to green was made relatively late in the production process. The change was implemented to ensure that Luke's blade stood out against the blue sky of Tatooine and was more visible during the battle at Carkoon.
A wardrobe oversight in the film is that all Imperial characters, regardless of their rank, wear the same rank insignia, specifically that of an Imperial Navy Commander. The production team noticed this error midway through filming, but it was not corrected in the final version of the film.
Before the film's production, Mark Hamill speculated that Luke would turn to the dark side halfway through the movie, with the central conflict revolving around whether Luke could return to the light side. A similar conflict would later appear in the comic series Star Wars: Dark Empire.
Adaptations and tie-in media
James Kahn penned the novelization of Return of the Jedi. Although it includes numerous scenes that were cut from the final version, the release of Revenge of the Sith contradicted Kahn's assertion that Anakin Skywalker remembered "lava crawling up his back." In the novelization of Return of the Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi tells Luke Skywalker that he and Anakin Skywalker fought and that his father "fell into a molten pit." The novelization also identifies Owen Lars as Obi-Wan Kenobi's brother. Owen Lars was later confirmed to be Anakin Skywalker's stepbrother. Interestingly, Joel and Nash Edgerton, who played Owen and served as Ewan McGregor's stunt double, respectively, in the prequel trilogy, are brothers in real life. During the initial confrontation in Darth Sidious's throne room, the Emperor delves into Luke's mind and discovers that Yoda completed Luke's Jedi training and that Yoda has since passed away. Nevertheless, he shows no indication of recognizing Yoda's name upon hearing it.
Marvel Comics adapted the film into comic book form. Unlike the previous film adaptations, it was not released as part of the ongoing Star Wars series, but rather as a standalone four-part (1 2 3 4) mini-series. Archie Goodwin wrote the script for the adaptation, and Al Williamson provided the illustrations. (A manga adaptation, illustrated by Shin-Ichi Hiromoto, was subsequently released in Japan in 1998 and in the United States in 1999.)
While the first two Star Wars films were adapted for radio in the early 1980s, it wasn't until 1996 that a radio version of Return of the Jedi was produced. Brian Daley wrote the adaptation, HighBridge Audio produced it, and it was broadcast on National Public Radio.
In November 1983, CBS broadcast the official making-of documentary, Classic Creatures: Return of the Jedi. The Ewoks' popularity also led to two made-for-TV movies in 1984 (The Ewok Adventure and 1985 (Ewoks: The Battle for Endor) and an animated TV series that aired on ABC in 1985 and 1986.
Special Edition and home video
As he did with the other two films in the original trilogy, Lucas released a Special Edition of Return of the Jedi, which premiered in theaters on March 14, 1997. This edition included several cosmetic changes and additions, such as replacing a piece of music in the final scene. In Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, Hayden Christensen portrays Anakin Skywalker. However, in the original and Special Edition versions of Return of the Jedi, Sebastian Shaw, a much older actor, played both the dying Anakin Skywalker and his Force ghost. In the DVD release, Anakin's ghost is depicted as a young man, played by Christensen, which is considered the canon version of the ghost. In the DVD commentary, Lucas explains that Anakin learned to control his life force after death, similar to Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda. (This is briefly mentioned in Revenge of the Sith.) Thus, instead of appearing as the older man who was Darth Vader, Anakin can revert to the young man he was before turning to the dark side.
The ongoing changes Lucas made to all of the Star Wars films have sparked controversy among critics. Some argue that the redemption of Luke's father as an older man suggests that this is how he should be represented after death. Others contend that the older man was arguably never Anakin Skywalker until his final moments, and the vision of Hayden Christensen brings the story full circle: Darth Vader defeated, Anakin Skywalker at peace. Nevertheless, many fans believe that inserting Christensen is disrespectful to Shaw.
On September 21, 2004, the original three films were released on DVD. This release included further changes, such as sound effects and improvements to the film's visual quality.
During the sequence announcing the Emperor's defeat at Endor to the galaxy, an additional scene showing celebrations on Theed, Naboo, was included. A Gungan can be heard shouting "Wesa free" in this scene. In the scene depicting the people of Coruscant celebrating, the Senate Building and the Jedi Temple were added to the background.
With the release of the third episode, which explains how and why Anakin Skywalker turned to the dark side, George Lucas once again modified Return of the Jedi to strengthen the connection between the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy. Sebastian Shaw played Anakin in the hangar bay and in the final celebration scene in the original film. In the DVD release, Shaw portrayed Anakin in the hangar bay scene, but his eyebrows were digitally removed to more closely resemble Anakin's injured appearance at the end of Revenge of the Sith. However, Hayden Christensen replaced him during the final celebration, appearing as he did in Revenge of the Sith before his injuries on Mustafar. Rather than simply reshooting the Force ghost of Anakin with Hayden, test footage of Hayden's head was digitally grafted onto Sebastian Shaw's body.
On September 12, 2006, Lucasfilm released a two-DVD set containing the 2004 Special Edition and the unaltered original theatrical version. This release was limited and available only through December 31 of that year.
The film was re-released in the Blu-ray format on September 16, 2011. This release included previously unreleased deleted scenes from the film as bonus features. It also included a third set of changes to the film, primarily minor visual alterations.
On April 7, 2015, Walt Disney Studios, 20th Century Fox, and Lucasfilm jointly announced the digital releases of the six released Star Wars films. As Lucasfilm retained digital distribution rights to Episodes I through III and V through VI, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released Return of the Jedi for digital download on April 10, 2015. On the official promo poster for Return of the Jedi, Luke's lightsaber appeared blue, but it is actually green in the movie.
Despite the Walt Disney Company's 2012 acquisition of Lucasfilm Ltd. and the release rights to all future Star Wars films, Fox was to retain original distribution rights to Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, which they co-produced and co-financed, in perpetuity across all media worldwide. Fox was also to retain theatrical, nontheatrical, and home-video rights worldwide for the franchise's five subsequent films, which Lucasfilm produced and financed independently, through May 2020, at which point ownership was to transfer to Disney. This complex relationship between Fox and Disney, particularly regarding Fox's perpetual rights to Episode IV, posed an obstacle to any future boxed set containing all nine films. On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company announced its acquisition of most of Fox's parent company, 21st Century Fox, including the film studio and all distribution rights to A New Hope. On March 20, 2019, the deal was officially finalized. On April 12, 2019, a Blu-ray box set featuring the nine main installments of the Star Wars saga remastered in 4K was reportedly announced for a 2020 release.
40th anniversary re-release
To celebrate its 40th anniversary, Return of the Jedi was rereleased in theaters for a limited time in 2023, from April 28 to May 1 in the United Kingdom and from April 28 to May 4 in the United States.
Reception ‡
In the commentary for the 2004 DVD release, Lucas stated that the Ewoks symbolized a technologically inferior force overcoming a powerful empire, drawing parallels to events such as the Vietnam War, Attila the Hun's conquests of the Roman Empire, and the American Revolutionary War. The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film reveals that the idea originated from Lucas's interest in the Vietnam War while making Apocalypse Now, specifically the Vietcong's victory over the United States despite being less technologically advanced. Some critics, such as conservative commentator Bill Whittle in the webseries Afterburner episode "Han Shot First," have criticized this, citing perceived offensive connotations and morally ambiguous implications. However, in the contemporary documentary From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga, Lucas clarifies that the Vietnam War was merely the inspiration for the subplot's development, not a political statement. Nevertheless, a note in the 1973 draft for A New Hope (then simply called Star Wars) explicitly stated that the film's events were inspired by "a large technological empire going after a group of freedom fighters," clearly alluding to the events in Vietnam.
In 2021, the U.S. Library of Congress selected Return of the Jedi for preservation in the National Film Registry, deeming it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."