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This is a partial list of scenes (some filmed, some in animatic form or merely considered) that weren't included in any version of the canon films or TV series. Some scenes were cut due to time constraints, while others simply didn't fit into the flow of the story. Deleted scenes for the prequel trilogy were featured on the second disc of their original DVD release, but most of the original trilogy deleted scenes weren't released until the 2011 Blu-ray release. Deleted scenes for The Clone Wars were included on the Blu-rays of seasons Two to Five.
Episode I - The Phantom MenaceEdit
Completed scenes released on DVDEdit
The Waterfall SequenceQui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Jar Jar Binks escape their bongo before it goes over a waterfall.
Dawn Before the RacePadmé waking Anakin the morning of the podrace.
Complete Podrace Grid Sequence Introduction to the racers before the podrace, beyond that seen in the film.
Extended Podrace Lap 2 Extension of the scene, which was partially reincorporated into film.
Anakin's Scuffle with Greedo Anakin has a fight with Greedo, who claimed he cheated. Qui-Gon breaks it up.
Farewell to Jira After saying farewell to Jira and giving her some credits, Qui-Gon destroys one of Darth Maul's probe droids following them. Qui-Gon and Anakin break into a run, explaining why they are running to the ship in the film.
The Air Taxi Sequence About ten seconds of additional footage on Coruscant.
Incomplete scenes released on Blu-rayEdit
Trash Talking Droids On board the Trade Federation starship, two droids discuss the arrival of the Republic cruiser.
Extended Podrace Wager Qui-Gon tries more diligently to expand the wager to include Shmi.
Battle on the Boarding Ramp Extended fight with Darth Maul on Tatooine, including Darth Maul jumping onto the ship's platform with Qui-Gon before falling off.
Bail Organa of Alderaan Bail Organa votes for No Confidence in ChancellorValorum. (Organa would be recast as Jimmy Smits for Episode II, resulting in the renaming of the character played by Adrian Dunbar to Bail Antilles.)
The Battle Is Over A Naboo soldier shows Padmé via viewscreen that the battle droids have been deactivated.
Anakin's Return Anakin flies his Naboo starfighter back into the hangar.
Other cut scenesEdit
When Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are led into the Trade Federation conference room, some exotic bird-like creatures are singing in a cage near the door. When the Jedi notice the room is filling with deadly gas, the creatures drop dead in their cage as a cue that danger is literally in the air. (Included in the novelization).
Jar Jar becoming disoriented, being flung onto the walls and tumbling numerous times in the skiff's lower level.
Jar Jar juggling equipment in Watto's shop.
Extended scenes from Watto's Junkyard.
R2-D2 shows that he has booster rockets.[1] (These would later be shown in Episodes II and III.) These scenes were cut due to the practical effects being unworkable. The rocket feature made it onto the action figure however.
Scenes showcasing Anakin's precognitive powers.
The Neimoidians escort Darth Maul on Naboo.
Numerous shots were cut from the Battle of Naboo, including the lightsaber duel in the Theed power generator. (Many of these can be briefly seen during some of the DVD documentaries.)
The waterfall sequence
Dawn before the podrace
Complete podrace grid sequence
Extended podrace grid sequence
Anakin's scuffle with Greedo
Star Wars New Hope Plot
Farewell to Jira
Episode II - Attack of the ClonesEdit
Completed scenes released on DVDEdit
Padmé Addresses the Senate Padmé speaks before the Senate and objects to plans to create an army to fight against the Separatist movement.
Jedi Temple Analysis Room Obi-Wan has the Kaminosaberdart analyzed in the Analysis Rooms in the Jedi Temple.
Obi-Wan and Mace - Jedi Landing Platform Obi-Wan and Mace Windu discuss the mystery of the missing data on Kamino and Anakin's ability to protect Padmé while Obi-Wan boards his Jedi starfighter. (This is replaced in the film with a discussion between Obi-Wan, Mace, and Yoda discussing it all together.)
Extended Arrival on Naboo Anakin and Padmé walk with R2-D2 and discuss her time as Queen on Naboo.
Padmé's Parents' House Padmé introduces Anakin to her family at her Naboo villa. Anakin can be seen walking with Ruwee through the window.
Padmé's Bedroom Padmé shows Anakin her bedroom, which has holographic images of her humanitarian work.
Dooku Interrogates Padmé Anakin and Padmé are brought before Count Dooku, Jango Fett, and Poggle the Lesser and request Obi-Wan's release. Dooku says he cannot do so unless Naboo joins the Separatist movement, giving reasons for why he is forming the new government.
Anakin and Padmé on Trial The couple is put on trial by Poggle the Lesser, who finds them guilty. (After the scene where they go before Dooku was cut, this scene was made unnecessary.)
Incomplete scenes released on Blu-rayEdit
Extended Speeder Chase Anakin and Obi-Wan share a speeder while pursing Zam Wesell. Obi-Wan has to remove a flag that gets stuck in the engine.
The Lost Twenty Obi-Wan and Jocasta Nu discuss Count Dooku and the Lost Twenty.
Anakin's Nightmare En route to Naboo, Anakin begins having nightmares about his mother.
Anakin and Ruwee Anakin walks with Ruwee in their garden.
Raid on the Droid Control Ship and Extended Arena Fight
Raid on the Droid Control Ship Obi-Wan and Mace fight in the arena while Ki-Adi-Mundi, Plo Koon, and a few other Jedi raid one of the landed Droid Control Ships.
The Ground and Air Battles Continue After Mace beheads Jango, Ki-Adi-Mundi leads the raid of the Control Ship. Many other scenes of arena fighting are seen.
Droids Are Shut Down But Come Back On Anakin, Padmé, and Mace discuss why the droids haven't been deactivated. Ki-Adi-Mundi overpowers the Neimoidians running the Control Ship and turns them off, providing respite in the arena. They then reactivate and continue battling. (Since Episode I, they have had an independent backup system.) All the Jedi who accompanied Mundi and Koon perish, leaving only the two Masters.
Other cut scenesEdit
On Tatooine, while Anakin is searching for his mother, Padmé finds a box of C-3PO's coverings, and at the droid's request, puts them on him. (Lucas decided this took too much away from the main plot and re-shot earlier scenes involving C-3PO with him covered from the start. Apparently this scene was taken out relatively late, as Hasbro released a C-3PO action figure that included a box of parts to complete him. Ultimately, C-3PO would not get gold plates in the Legends continuity until the day Anakin was knighted.)
NR-N99 Persuader-class droid enforcers run over clones during the Battle ofGeonosis.
Padmé forcefully objects to the Senate's plans to create an army to fight against the Separatist movement.
Jedi Temple Analysis Room
Obi-Wan and Mace: Jedi Landing Platform
Extended Arrival on Naboo
Padmé's Parents' House
Padmé's Bedroom
Dooku Interrogates Padmé
Anakin and Padmé on Trial
Star Wars: The Clone WarsEdit
Feature filmEdit
Through the Tanks Anakin and Ahsoka make their way past tanks using the crate, briefly losing it.
Rancor Pit Anakin and Ahsoka (carrying Rotta) are confronted by Ventress and her battle droids. As she approaches them, R2 activates a trap door through which everyone drops into a pit. Anakin duels Ventress while Ahsoka cuts the droids down. Ahsoka then finds a way out, but unleashes a jungle rancor. Skywalker and Ventress fight on top of the beast until Ahsoka stabs it between the eyes, resulting in the rancor falling on Ventress. R2 then takes out the last battle droid, and they leave. Ventress stings the jungle rancor, making it jump up.
Platform Droid Fight Anakin calls for a gunship. However, as it lands, it is shot down, and a vulture droid attacks. Ahsoka and Anakin fight the vulture droid until Anakin cuts off its head.
Cargo Bay As Anakin, Ahsoka, and Rotta escape aboard the Twilight, Anakin orders Ahsoka to empty the cargo bay. Ahsoka goes back there, where she begins to fall out but is able to hold on to a cable. The cargo then destroys several vulture droids, and Ahsoka uses her lightsaber to make the debris spread out to hit them. As Ahsoka returns to the cockpit, Anakin tells her that the bay doors were in front of her.
Season TwoEdit
'Holocron Heist'
Todo Decoding Jedi Temple Shield Extended scene in which Todo 360 turns off the Temple shield.
Jedi Temple on High Alert Jocasta Nu warns Ahsoka of the Temple alert status.
Bane Giving Todo OrdersCad Bane works on cutting through to the communication center while Cato Parasitti talks to him as Jocasta Nu over the comm.
'Cargo of Doom'
Incomplete scenes
Deleted Vulture Droid Attack Early layout
Cad Bane Opens Holocron Alternate ending
'The Zillo Beast Strikes Back'
Strategy in the Jedi War Room Yoda instructs Mace Windu to retrieve the stun tanks.
Trapped in Palpatine's Shuttle The Zillo Beast holds the shuttle while Anakin decides what to do and C-3PO despairs.
'Senate Spy'
Padmé Glances Over Shoulder After walking away from Rush Clovis, Padmé looks back while walking up a staircase.
Incomplete scenes
Alternate Ending Outside Palace Early layout
'Weapons Factory'
Incomplete scenes
Alternate Episode Introduction Early layout
Barriss/Ahsoka Extended Dialogue Early layout
Extended Anakin/Luminara Discussion Early layout
'Brain Invaders'
Wormontage Compilation of shots of brain-invading worms going into clones.
Incomplete scenes
Alternate Episode Introduction Early layout
Medical Frigate Hallway Conversation
Extended Barriss/Ahsoka Battle
Alternate Obi-Wan/Ahsoka Scene Early layout
'The Deserter'
Commando Droid Snipers Extended scene of clones on speeders being sniped at by commando droids.
Incomplete scenes
Alternate Edit to Opening Montage Early layout
'The Mandalore Plot'
Satine Saves Obi-Wan Extended scene in which Obi-Wan beats up some Mandalorians and uses the Force to pull some crates over them.
Incomplete scenes
Pre Vizsla Conspires with Count Dooku Dooku warns Pre Vizsla via hologram not to allow the Duchess' political actions.
'Voyage of Temptation'
Obi-Wan Destroys Assassin Droid Extended scene in which Obi-Wan finishes destroying the assassin droid and tells Orn Free Taa to sheath his weapon, actually some meat he was eating.
Incomplete scenes
Alternate Scene of Tal Merrik and Dooku Early layout
'Duchess of Mandalore'
Anakin Speaks with Mas Amedda Anakin discusses the Mandalore mission with Mas Amedda.
Padmé Challenges Mas Amedda Padmé questions why Satine has been declared an enemy of the Republic, and Amedda announces Anakin will be going early on his mission.
Republic Fleet Ordered to Stand Down Rex tells Anakin the Senate has voted against occupation, so the troops are ordered to stand down.
'Senate Murders'
Incomplete scenes
Alternate Ending in Senate Hallway Early layout
'Cat and Mouse'
Incomplete scenes
Alternate Episode Ending Early layout
'Bounty Hunters'
Incomplete scenes
Alternate Embo Death Scene Early layout
'R2 Come Home'
Incomplete scenes
Deleted Scene of R2 and Jocasta Nu Early layout
Deleted Scene of Space Gunship Rescue Early layout
'Lethal Trackdown'
Incomplete scenes
Alternate Boba/Mace Ending Early layout
Season ThreeEdit
'Evil Plans'
C-3PO Reunited with Shiny R2-D2 C-3PO is upset when he finds out R2 has had a recent oil bath.
'Hunt for Ziro'
Ziro Loses the Bracelet A subplot in which Sy Snootles gives Ziro a bracelet commemorating their love, which he immediately loses.
Quinlan Finding Snooty's BraceletQuinlan Vos finds the bracelet from the earlier deleted scene.
'Ghosts of Mortis'
Incomplete scenes
Son Confers with Ancient Sith Lords The Son talks to Sith LordsDarth Revan and Darth Bane.
'Padawan Lost'
Incomplete scenes
Ahsoka Strategizing with Younglings
Sochek's The Big Lebowski Homage Sochek says he can procure a dismembered toe.
Hunters Discuss the Younglings
Bounty Hunters Hunted
Ahsoka Watched By Trandoshan
Rendered Chameleon Trandoshans The Trandoshan bounty hunters appear invisible as they blend in with their environments.
Season FourEdit
'Water War'
Incomplete scenes
The Crowning of Prince Lee-Char
'Prisoners'
Incomplete scenes
Kit Fisto at One with the Force
'Shadow Warrior'
Incomplete scenes
Padmé Talking to Grievous Gungans surround Grievous on Naboo and trap him with energy binds.
'Mercy Mission'
Incomplete scenes
R2-D2 and C-3PO on Aleen Extended scene
'Nomad Droids'
Incomplete scenes
C-3PO Explains Democracy Extended scene
'The General'
Incomplete scenes
Umbaran Banshee Attack
'Slaves of the Republic'
Incomplete scenes
Attack on the Queen
'Escape from Kadavo'
The Queen and Dooku
'A Friend in Need'
After completing the match, you can get a bronze, silver or gold loot box. Pathfinder Rewards – These are special items that you can use in single player only.
Incomplete scenes
Ahsoka Fighting Pre Vizsla
'Friends and Enemies'
Incomplete scenes
The Fugitives Have Escaped
'The Box'
Incomplete scenes
Cad Bane's Hat
'Crisis on Naboo'
Incomplete scenes
Capturing Moralo Eval Alternate scene
Obi-Wan Was Set Up
'Massacre'
Incomplete scenes
Zombie Attack Extended scene
'Brothers'
Savage in the DinerSavage Opress gets angry with a waitress as he looks at a map of the galaxy.
'Revenge'
Incomplete scenes
Maul's Reunion with Obi-Wan Alternate scene
Ventress and Obi-Wan Plot Their Escape
Season FiveEdit
'A War on Two Fronts'
Incomplete scenes
Droid Popper Training A clone instructs the team how to use specialized explosives. Anakin, Ahsoka, and Obi-Wan share their plan.
'The Soft War'
Incomplete scenes
Rebels Talk Strategy Lux returns to the others and is congratulated.
'Tipping Points'
Incomplete scenes
Steela's Fate Alternate ending
'The Gathering'
Incomplete scenes
Pushing Beyond Fear
'Bound for Rescue'
Incomplete scenes
Repairing the Crucible The younglings repair the starship Crucible.
'Missing in Action'
Incomplete scenes
Gascon's Gameplan Alternate scene
'Point of No Return'
Incomplete scenes
Cruiser Engine Room
'Revival'
Incomplete scenes
Maul's Master Plan Maul and Savage plan to form an army of people that the Jedi have forgotten.
Anakin's Frustration Anakin expresses his frustration that he isn't going on the mission with Obi-Wan and Adi Gallia at the Chancellor's wishes. He sees Palpatine who tells Anakin he wants him to act as his bodyguard.
'Shades of Reason'
Incomplete scenes
Peace Park Rescue Extended scene. Bo-Katan and several of Death Watch soldiers rescue children from several Black Sun and Pyke mercenaries.
Maul vs. Pre Vizsla Extended scene
'The Lawless'
Incomplete scenes
Anakin Loans the Twilight
Palpatine Advises Anakin
Sith Duel Extended scene of Palpatine fighting Darth Maul and Savage Opress.
'The Jedi Who Knew Too Much'
Incomplete scenes
Anakin and Padmé Anakin expresses his anger that Ahsoka has been put on trial for murder.
Anakin Confronts the Council Via hologram, Anakin asks if the Council if they really believe Ahsoka is guilty. Yoda speaks with him alone and encourages him to save his Padawan.
'To Catch a Jedi'
Incomplete scenes
Anakin and Plo Refocus
'The Wrong Jedi'
Incomplete scenes
Marching Ahsoka Out
Anakin Confronts Ventress Extended scene
Trial Arguments Padmé defends Ahsoka, as Tarkin tries her and Palpatine judges.
Anakin vs. Barriss Extended scene
Ahsoka's Decision Alternate scene
Episode III - Revenge of the SithEdit
Completed scenes released on DVDEdit
Grievous Slaughters a Jedi: Escape from the General Anakin and Obi-Wan round a corner and find GeneralShaak Ti being held hostage by GeneralGrievous and a large number of battle droids. Anakin and Obi-Wan are quickly surrounded by battle droids and Grievous pretends to show mercy to Shaak Ti, then he suddenly kills her with a well-placed Shiak strike to the chest. Anakin and Obi-Wan Kenobi have a brief sign language argument over what method they should use to escape, then draw their lightsabers and slice a hole in the floor. They fall down into a Separatist fuel tank; the surrounding battle droids proceed to take aim, but the experienced Separatist commander orders his troops not to fire in order to prevent the fuel from igniting. B2 super battle droids follow the Jedi, but are unable to stop them. The fuel rises to an overload discharge spark gap and the section of the ship explodes. (This scene was left in in LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game however Shaak Ti is not present and the generator room is not flooded. Due to Shaak Ti's appearance later in the film, this scene is non-canon.)
Rebel Alliance subplot
A Stirring in the Senate(Bail's Office)Senators including Bail Organa and Mon Mothma present the movement against the Chancellor to Padmé, sowing the seeds of the Rebel Alliance.
Seeds of Rebellion(Padmé's Apartment) Padmé suggests bringing the plan to the one Jedi she trusts, but the group agrees to appeal to the Senate first.
Confronting the Chancellor(Palpatine's Office) The senators, now including Jar Jar, presents the petition to Palpatine and Anakin, who is acting as his personal bodyguard.
A Plot to Destroy the Jedi? Obi-Wan, Mace, and Yoda meet in the Temple to discuss the darkness surrounding Chancellor Palpatine.
Yoda Exiled to Dagobah Yoda arrives on Dagobah in the final montage.
Incomplete scenes released on Blu-rayEdit
Elevator Antics Anakin and Obi-Wan banter while waiting for the elevator on the Invisible Hand.
Changes to Constitution Palpatine presents legal changes meant to end the war to Anakin.
Utapau Chase Animatics A longer pursuit between Obi-Wan and General Grievous. (Steven Spielberg oversaw the creation of the scene.)
Anakin Kills Shaak Ti Anakin enters the meditation chamber in which Shaak Ti is concentrating and stabs her in the back. (This is the canonical version of her death and later seen in a vision to Yoda in The Clone Wars episode 'Voices.')
Jedi Imposters at the Temple When Obi-Wan and Yoda arrive at the Jedi Temple they find a group of clone troopers disguised as Jedi waiting outside. The two Jedi aren't fooled and kill them all. (There is a similar situation in LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game. The movie includes the second half of this scene, removing the dialogue and using CG to remove the clones' robes and give them 501st helmets.)
Yoda Communes with Qui-Gon Qui-Gon Jinn speaks to Yoda, who names himself Qui-Gon's apprentice. (This scene appears in the novelization.)
Other cut scenesEdit
Extended duel with Count Dooku, including a scene where after Obi-Wan remarks 'You won't get away this time, Dooku,' Dooku responds by igniting his lightsaber and saying, 'Just because there are two of you, do not assume you have the advantage.' The short scene with this line is in the Episode III video game, along with an alternate shot of Palpatine grimacing as Anakin frees his arms.
Palpatine's 'reception committee' (consisting of Mas Amedda and the maroon guards) on Coruscant after being saved by Anakin.
Dialogue between Aayla Secura and Commander Bly, Plo Koon, and Jag
Wookiee ambush.
Obi-Wan enters an Utapau Dragon Pen and selects Boga from several other Varactyls. This is included in the novel. His ride to Grievous' hangar is extended, and when the IG-100 MagnaGuards attack Obi-Wan, he fights them shortly and then crushes them with a section of the ceiling.
An alternate duel between Windu and Palpatine was shot, and for reasons unknown never released to the media, which shows Palpatine dueling using Anakin’s lightsaber. A few seconds of the alternate takes were used in the final film as the hilt can be seen for the briefest moment at least once, though the blade was edited to be red. The scene is considered to be a piece of lost media. It briefly appeared in the Revenge of The Sith deleted scene commentary through an amateur camera shot of the scene being filmed as Lucas explains it.
After being shot down by his troops, Obi-Wan evades a Nos monster in the depths of Utapau. The Nos Monster attacks several Republic seeker droids, while Obi-Wan sneaks past some baby Nos Monsters. ('The Nos Monster') This scene appears in the novelization only.
A scene where Obi-Wan visits with Padmé to discuss his concerns for Anakin. The scene was not completed as Anthony Daniels had fallen over while filming. The scene as filmed can be seen in the behind-the-scenes featurette 'C-3PO: His Moment to Shine.'[2]
Extended duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin which shows why at one point in the movie Anakin is missing his lightsaber, Obi-Wan at one point uses it along with his own.
The Naboo star skiff shown flying off from Mustafar to Polis Massa (this scene was featured in the teaser trailer).
Extended Order 66 and Temple Purge shots, and others, which show the deaths of Barriss Offee, Luminara Unduli, Whie Malreaux, Bene, and Cin Drallig.
Extended Separatist Slaughter, which shows Wat Tambor being killed by Anakin Skywalker (now Darth Vader).
Grievous Executes Shaak Ti
A Stirring in the Senate
Seeds of Rebellion
Padmé Amidala sitting beside Chi Eekway Papanoida
Confronting the Chancellor
A Plot to Destroy the Jedi?
A clone trooper in Jedi disguise
Wat Tambor is killed
Away from Mustafar
Arriving at Coruscant
Exiled to Dagobah
Yoda leaving his escape pod
SoloEdit
Completed scenes released on Blu-rayEdit
Proxima's DenQi'ra sticks a knife at Solo. After Solo and Qi'ra makes plans to leave Corellia, Solo is brought to Proxima's pool.
Corellian Foot Chase As Solo and Qi'ra make their escape, they hide a barrel of eels, that covers their scent from Moloch and his corellian hounds.
Han Solo: Imperial Cadet Solo disobeys orders to jettison and instead crashes his TIE fighter. Solo, after receiving a eye wound, is then court-martialed by Commodore Almudin in a Tribunal. Han attempts to defend, but is found guilty and is assigned to the infantry on Mimban.
The Battle of Mimban (extended) Solo, alongside Beckett and his gang posing as mud troopers, fight the Mimbanese. Beckett gives Solo a different blaster and tells Solo to cover him. As Korso continues to fight he is badly wounded by an explosion. Beckett then pulls him back to shelter, but Korso dies.
Han versus Chewie (extended) In this version, after Solo speaks Shyriiwook, Chewbacca uses Han to try and break the pillar. Chewie gave up this attempt until Solo forced him to charge at the pillar.
Snowball Fight! On their way to meet Dryden, Solo and Chewie get into a snowball fight until Beckett tells them stop and follow him.[3]
Meet Dryden (extended) Dryden gives Solo some Thwip feet that Solo eats as Beckett and Dryden talk about Nest's interference.
Coaxium Double-cross Solo asks one of the villagers on Savareen if they had extra cases as Dryden's ship arrives.
Rogue OneEdit
'The stuff people talk about, like what they saw in the trailer, they're not scenes you can just put on a DVD. They're moments within scenes and threads, and you pull a thread and it all changes. It was changing the whole time. It's not like there was one version and then there was this other version -- it was like this thing that incrementally evolved constantly through all of postproduction and didn't stop until there was a gun at our heads and we were forced to release the movie.'
―Gareth Edwards on the lack of Rogue One deleted scenes[src]
Rogue One required extensive reshoots late in its production. About 45 scenes that were featured in trailers or TV spots did not make it to the final film. According to director Gareth Edwards, these were simply bits and pieces, not entire scenes removed from the film.
Cut scenesEdit
An opening title crawl.
Jyn Erso saying 'I rebel' to Mon Mothma.
An overhead shot of Jedi statue ruins on Jedha.
Captured Rebel pilots on Jedha (altered in a later trailer to remove blood from the face of a soldier).
Saw Gerrera without hair on Jedha.
Orson Krennic in the Death Star control room.
Orson Krennic telling Darth Vader: 'The power that we are dealing with here is immeasurable.'
Darth Vader in the Death Star control room.
Jyn with a blaster facing off against a TIE Fighter.
Jyn and Cassian Andor run across the beach with a Upon realizing that the story was being told through the droids' perspective and it was them leading things to Luke, Lucas took the footage out.
Other appearances
Star Wars 'Lost Cut'
Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker1977 novelization
pre-release publicity photographs
bubblegum cards (Luke in the Desert only)
Behind The Magic CD ROM (1998) - silent, monochrome video, degraded quality
Star Wars radio adaptation (1981)
Luke and Biggs This scene is a conversation between Luke and his oldest friend, Biggs Darklighter. Biggs has left Tatooine and is on planet leave from the Imperial Academy, where he is training to be a space pilot. Luke's envy of Biggs's success conflicts with his duty to his uncle and his reasons for remaining on Tatooine. Biggs quietly tells Luke that he has decided to join the Rebellion against the Empire. In an emotional exchange, the two young men say their farewells. (This scene was to come between the scene where C-3PO spots a distant Jawasandcrawler in the desert and the capture of R2-D2 by Jawas in the canyon.)
Why it was cut: The Luke and Biggs sequence was part of the Anchorhead backstory on Tatooine and was cut along with the other early scenes on Tatooine for the same reasons.
Other appearances
Star Wars 'Lost Cut'
Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker 1977 novelization
The Marvel Comics adaptation
The Star Wars Storybook
pre-release publicity photographs
shown in 1998 at San Diego Comic Con
Behind The Magic CD ROM (1998) - video, degraded quality
Star Wars radio adaptation (1981)
The Search for Artoo R2-D2 has absconded from his new master, Luke Skywalker. Early in the morning, Luke and Threepio rush off in the landspeeder to search for Artoo, with Threepio driving the landspeeder. They talk about Artoo, Ben Kenobi and how angry Uncle Owen is going to be. (The scene belongs at the start of the sequence where Luke and Threepio search for Artoo, before the attack of the Tusken Raiders. The moment was scored with a light version of Luke's theme; the music can be heard at the beginning of the cue 'Land of the Sand People' on the original LP and CD configurations, or 'Landspeeder Search' in the Special Edition album.)
Why it was cut: The landspeeder cockpit sequence had to be filmed against a rear-projection screen and was dropped due to poor quality.
Other appearances
Star Wars 'Lost Cut'
Star Wars radio adaptation (1981)
Incomplete scenes released on Blu-rayEdit
Old Woman on Tatooine As Luke's landspeeder races into the town of Anchorhead, he nearly runs over an old woman (an unfinished effects shot).
Aunt Beru's Blue Milk A shot of Beru dispensing the blue milk before she joins Owen and Luke at dinner.
Cantina Rough Cut Rough Cut footage of the Elstree Studios location cantina scene taken from the Lost Cut. The footage features some creatures that didn't make the final cut, Jenny sits next to Han and makes out with him, multiple alternate takes and cut lines, the full Paul Blake Greedo confrontation, etc.
Darth Vader Widens the Search In this short scene, Darth Vader and Chief Bast walk along a corridor on the Death Star. Bast reports that the search for the missing droids has extended to Mos Eisley spaceport. Vader observes that Princess Leia is resisting interrogation and Bast boldly criticizes Tarkin's plan to break her as 'foolish.' (The scene would have appeared between the scene where Han Solo encounters Jabba the Hutt [also cut] and the scene where Luke and Obi-Wan find the Millennium Falcon in Docking Bay 94.)
Why it was cut: Probably for reasons of time. The scene adds little to the plot. The unfinished scene features David Prowse's voice as Darth Vader from inside the costume.
Other appearances
Star Wars 'Lost Cut'
Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker 1977 novelization
The Marvel Comics adaptation
pre-release publicity photographs
stills used on bubblegum cards
The Star Wars Holiday Special (footage redubbed)
Stormtrooper Search Stormtroopers search the alleys of Mos Eisley for the missing droids.
Other appearances
The Star Wars Holiday Special (footage redubbed)
Alternate Biggs and Luke Reunion The scene between Biggs and Luke in the Rebel hangar bay lasts longer, involving Red Leader speaking of knowing Luke's father.
Other cut scenesEdit
The first edit of the film was by John Jympson and referred to as the 'Lost Cut.' It contained all the footage that George Lucas had shot up to that point, as well as on-set sound effects and a different opening. This rough cut contained a lot of alternate takes that were not used in the final version of the film, plus several scenes that were subsequently cut. George Lucas decided to reedit the whole film to give it a faster pace. Aside from the small amount of still photos that have surfaced and monochrome footage of the cantina, Luke and Biggs on the Behind the Magic CD-ROM, very few people have seen it. The Star Wars Holiday Special borrowed footage for the 'Life on Tatooine' segment. The cut has since deteriorated to black and white, but an article about it was published in Star Wars Insider 41.
There are many short alternate takes throughout Star Wars where Luke appears in his poncho which can be seen in stills and bubblegum cards: Luke in the desert, in the Tusken Raiders' canyon, finding the destroyed homestead and in the hangar on Yavin 4. The only poncho scenes that made the final cut were in Docking Bay 94, on the Millennium Falcon flight from the Death Star and the arrival on Yavin 4.
Luke and Ben spend the night at Bestine.
A patron of the cantina (Garouf Lafoe) leaves and reports the altercation between Obi Wan, Luke, Ponda Baba, and Dr Evazan to the stormtroopers. The camera follows him out of the cantina. He can briefly be seen just before an optical wipe and then immediately outside talking to the stormtroopers as C-3PO says, 'I don't like the look of this.' This footage can be found on the “Cantina Rough Cut” scene featured on the Blu- Ray.
Luke is seen haggling over the price he gets for his landspeeder with Wioslea for a little longer than is shown in the film.
A shot of a hidden gun on the Millennium Falcon shooting at stormtroopers was cut. This shot was later used in The Empire Strikes Back in the scene where Leia, Chewbacca, Lando, and the droids reach the Millennium Falcon on Hoth.
There was an additional Rebel pilot, known as John D. He is killed shortly after making his first kill. His death still exists on film, with the single line 'I'm hit!'
A scene within the Death Star where Luke, Han, and Leia are fighting against stormtroopers. They are trapped against a locked blast door as R2-D2 attempts to open it. The center of the room is a circular pit from which stormtroopers are seen falling in as they are shot trying to cross with the use of grappling hooks. The scene in question has never surfaced online or in any other media, except for Roger Ebert's 'Microsoft Cinemania,' a DOS-based multimedia CD-ROM movie encyclopedia, released in the early 1990s.
A scene in which Han, Luke, Chewbacca and Leia swiftly make their way past several Imperials without their disguises before reaching the window overlooking the Milenium Falcon. The last few seconds of this scene remain in the film before Leia mentions “You came in that thing ? You’re braver than I thought“. This can be found on J.W. Rinzler’s “The Making Of Star Wars” E-Book.
A brief gag aboard the Death Star where after several Stormtroopers run through a corridor, a GNK power droid finds itself alone and scurries off (Rinzler e-book).
Also included on Roger Ebert's 'Microsoft Cinemania' was a rare fight scene between Obi-Wan and Darth Vader with the use of the original unrotoscoped lightsabers.
Extended scene of the meeting among the Imperials on board the Death Star. This scene was later shown at Celebration 2017.
Luke watching the space battle
Old woman shouting after Luke
Biggs and Luke talking
Luke says farewell to Biggs
Luke next to a moisture vaporator
Piloting the speeder
Luke wearing his poncho
A creature at Mos Eisley
Watching the skies of Tatooine
Han in the cantina with Jenny
Episode V - The Empire Strikes BackEdit
Completed scenes released on Blu-rayEdit
Han and Leia: Extended Echo Base Argument Han and Leia continue their argument beyond 'You could use a good kiss!'
Deleted Wampa Scenes
Alternate version of Han and Leia’s argument in the hallway where a wampa hand is shown breaking through the ice in the wall.
While fleeing Imperial troops, Han suggests they take a shortcut through a room that has a sign on it. Leia tells him 'that's where they keep those creatures' (the wampas). They run off and C-3PO tears away the warning sign, hoping the troops will mistake it for another room. Sure enough, they do, and one of the snowtroopers is pulled in by a wampa. The other troopers stare in disbelief and Darth Vader walks up, seemingly just as confused or silently reprimanding them for stopping. (The part in which C-3PO tears off the warning sign appears in the original trailer.)
Several Rebel troopers attempt to fend off several wampas that have escaped their containment unit during the battle of Hoth
R2-D2 wanders down a corridor and narrowly escapes a wampa
(These scenes were removed due to the poor looking wampa costume effects)
Luke and Leia: Medical Center After leaving the bacta tank, Luke and Leia almost kiss but are interrupted by C-3PO.
Incomplete scenes released on Blu-rayEdit
Luke's Recovery Luke in the bacta tank, with director Irvin Kershner providing the voice for 2-1B.
The Fate of General Veers A snowspeeder crashes into an AT-AT Walker commanded by General Veers. (The character later appears in Expanded Universe stories, though the accident which could have resulted in his death is discussed as though the scene had taken place.)
Yoda's Test Yoda trains Luke, who uses his lightsaber (no audio).
Hiding in the Asteroid Han works on the Falcon while the asteroid belt is bombarded by the Empire.
Alternate Han and Leia Kiss A version of the kiss on the Falcon in which Leia returns the kiss.
Lobot's CaptureLobot is captured by stormtroopers to be killed.
Leia Tends to Luke Leia tells Luke about Han's capture by Boba Fett.
Other cut scenesEdit
2-1B evaluates a dead tauntaun (seen in background of final film when Han asks where Luke has gone).
Luke wears a Bacta mask to heal his facial scars.
Luke mans a cannon aboard a Rebel transport and shoots an attacking wampa.
Additional shots of Derek Klivian and his 'death.'
Alternate scene between Han and Leia on Bespin with kiss ('You should wear girls' clothes all the time.')
A scene in which Lobot has dialogue.
2-1B attends to the dead tauntaun.
Luke Skywalker mans a heavy artillery weapon against the attacking wampas.
R2-D2 escapes a wampa.
Luke Skywalker returns to Echo Base amidst the wreckage of battle.
C-3PO sets a trap for pursuing snowtroopers, leading them into a wampa holding pen in Echo Base.
The pursuing snowtroopers enter the wampa pen.
Episode VI - Return of the JediEdit
Completed scenes released on Blu-rayEdit
Vader's Arrival and Reaching Out to Luke Luke's original introduction. (At Celebration V in Orlando, FL, Mark Hamill and George Lucas screened the scene of Luke tinkering with his new lightsaber.)
Rebel Raid on the Bunker An additional battle in the shield bunker, where Han and Rebel soldiers encounter a squad of stormtroopers outside the control room. Han reacts to being called 'Rebel scum.' (This scene was later used as gameplay in the 'Triumph of the Rebellion' mission in Star Wars: Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike.)
Incomplete scenes released on Blu-rayEdit
Tatooine Sandstorm Right after Jabba's Sail Barge blows up, Luke, Han, Leia, Lando, and the droids go back to the Millennium Falcon and Luke's X-wing (both of which are in the middle of a sandstorm). Han thanks Luke for saving him and Luke explains to his friends that he has to go back to Dagobah. (No dialogue is clearly audible.)
Jerjerrod's Conflict Darth Vader Force chokesMoff Jerjerrod to get into the Emperor's throne room. (Vader's lines are spoken by Prowse inside the costume.)
Battle of Endor: The Lost Rebels B-roll footage of Rebel pilots being fed lines. A female pilot made it into the film, but was dubbed over with a male's voice.
Other cut scenesEdit
Luke uses a force jump to escape the rancor and hangs from the ceiling grate until two Jawas bang their rifles on his hands forcing him to let go. This can be found on “The Making of Return Of The Jedi” Rinzler e-book.
Drunk guests having a party aboard the sail barge.
Barge fight between Ree-Yees and Saelt-Marae with C-3PO translating.
Leia gets an object and attacks a skiff guard, before she goes up to the cannon and positions it to the deck. This scene was cut and you can see a fraction of that footage when Leia appears to get an object. This scene was captured on photo and video.
Ben's monologue
Darth Vader lands in the Death Star docking bay with Luke, taking him to the Emperor. (This outtake was partially restored and placed in the Special Edition of The Empire Strikes Back, having Vader land in the Executor. Moff Jerjerrod can be seen in the new footage and is mouthing his dialogue from Return of the Jedi.)
A few frames were cut from the Emperor's arrival on the Death Star. These frames can be found on T-bone's Star Wars Universe website.
General Crix Madine was to have scenes aboard a Mon Calamari ship during the final battle. These scenes were filmed. Actor Dermot Crowley claims to have spent a few extra days filming in a moving chair shouting things such as 'Fire!' There are cut shots of Rebel gunners aboard the Millennium Falcon. It was rumored that the B-Wing fighters would be given more to do during the battle in the Special Edition. These scenes can be found on the complete saga Blu-Ray.
Several scenes focusing on Moff Jerjerrod during the Battle of Endor were filmed but ended up cut due to time constraints. In these scenes, Palpatine orders for Jerjerrod to fire the Death Star's superlaser at Endor in the event that the rebels managed to capture or otherwise deactivate the shield generator. Afterwards, upon learning of the shield's deactivation, Jerjerrod reluctantly carries out his command and orders to scramble fighters to prevent Red and Gold Squadrons from accessing the reactor core. (These scenes were eventually restored in the Blu-ray edition.)
The Return of the Jedi Edit Droid Laserdisc featured a silent 59 seconds of R2-D2 repairing Luke's X-Wing on Dagobah and about 29 minutes of Frank Oz being fed lines as Yoda.[4] Among the scenes included the filming of a scene that revealed that Yoda had forbade Obi-Wan from telling Luke about Vader being Luke's father.
Sandstorm on Tatooine
Parting ways in the storm
Moff Jerjerrod greets Vader
Vader chokes Jerjerrod
The Mon Calamari pilot
The Sullustan pilot
The Human female pilot
Episode VII - The Force AwakensEdit
Completed scenes released on Blu-rayEdit
Finn and the Villager Following the death of FN-2003 during the attack on Tuanul, FN-2187 spares the life of a villager.
Jakku Message At the D'Qar's Resistance base, MajorTaslin Brance informs GeneralLeia Organa that Tuanul was wiped out and there was no sign of the map. Brance also told her that Poe Dameron and his droid were missing. Organa orders them to find BB-8 instead of contacting the New Republic.
Unkar's ArmUnkar Plutt confronts Rey at Maz Kanata's castle and warns her of the trouble she's in. Rey attempts to defend herself but is disarmed by Unkar. Chewbacca steps in to help Rey as Unkar makes fun of him. Angered by Unkar, Chewbacca then steps on Unkar's foot and rips his arm out of its socket which lands on a table in front of Wollivan.
Tunnel Standoff While escaping Maz's palace, Han Solo, Finn, Chewbacca, and Maz Kanata are cut off by a group of stormtroopers, who wished to arrest them in the name of Supreme LeaderSnoke. Solo attempts to talk them out of it, asking 'Do you know a Smoke?' and 'What makes him Supreme?' He then asks, 'Is this something [Finn] did? Is this about the stormtrooper boots?' to which Finn replies 'That's how you knew.' (This implies that Han realized that Finn was a deserted stormtrooper because of the boots he was wearing.)
Leia and the Resistance Leia tells her emissary Korr Sella to warn the New Republic to take action against the First Order.
X-Wings Prepare for LightspeedResistance base personnel give Dameron and his pilots the all clear after the Falcon lands on Starkiller Base.
Kylo Searches the Falcon A squad of snowtroopers and Kylo Ren search the Millennium Falcon. Ren then see Dameron's X-wings moving in to attack when he walks out.
Snow Speeder Chase Finn and Rey take a snowspeeder but are pursued by another until Finn shoots the gunner and causes it to crash.
Finn Will Be Fine After Rey returns to D'Qar with Finn, Dr. Harter Kalonia assures her that Finn will be fine.
Episode VIII - The Last JediEdit
Completed scenes released on Blu-rayEdit
Alternate Opening An alternate opening sequence for the film. After Finn awakens from his coma and realizes that he is aboard a ship, LieutenantKaydel Ko Connix tells Poe that they need more time as Resistance members flee in their transports, leading to the battle during the Evacuation of D'Qar against the First OrderDreadnoughts.
Paige's Gun Jams A scene during the battle over D'Qar where Paige's gun jams while she is in the Cobalt Hammer.
Luke Has a Moment Following the scene in which Luke Skywalker asks Rey and Chewbacca what happened to Han Solo, he returns to his hut and grieves the death of his brother-in-law while Leia does the same aboard the Raddus.
Poe: Not Much of a Sewer A conversation between Poe Dameron and Finn aboard the Raddus in which Dameron would have revealed he stitched up Finn's jacket following the Battle of Starkiller Base, sewing up in the process the gaping hole that was left by Kylo Ren's lightsaber.
It's Kind of Weird That You Recorded That After recovering from his injuries in the bacta tank, Finn sees Rey's goodbye to him following the destruction of Starkiller Base recorded by BB-8.
The Caretaker Sizes Up Rey The Caretakers meeting with Rey at Ahch-To and starting to take displeasure from her antics as she followed Luke for her first lesson.
Caretaker Village Sequence Rey's third lesson: After Rey spots boats sailing towards the Caretaker village, Luke notes that they are raiders who are arriving to ransack the village, causing Rey to go to the village only to have Luke saying that if Rey attempts to retaliate, the raiders, with more reinforcements, will return to attack again, because a Jedi would let this to play out without getting involved. Rey charges into the village anyway and sees a cheerful Lenai reunion instead.
Extended Fathier Chase An extended version of Finn's and Rose's escape from the Canto Bight racetrack with the fathiers. After escaping from the Canto Casino, the fathiers would have crashed against several other locations, including Zord's Spa and Bathhouse.
Mega Destroyer Incursion – Extended Version After Finn, Rose, BB-8, and DJ infiltrate the Supremacy, once they enter an elevator, Finn meets 926, a fellow stormtrooper who knew him from his days serving the First Order. Unaware of Finn's defection from the Order, 926 congratulates him for his 'ascension' and gives Finn a friendly swat on the posterior. Elsewhere in the destroyer, Kylo Ren awaits Rey's arrival.
Rose Bites the Hand That Taunts Her After DJ's betrayal, when General Hux starts to taunt Rose and Finn for their failures, Rose bites Hux's hand, shaking him up until he gives the execution order and walks away.
Phasma Squealed Like a Whoop Hog An alternate fight sequence for Finn and Captain Phasma. Cornering Finn with the help of her fellow stormtroopers at a moving platform after Finn breaks the eye part of her helmet, Phasma prepares to finish off Finn, only to have him reveal her betrayal at Starkiller Base when she disabled the shields to save her own life. As she notes that the stormtroopers are uncomfortable with Finn's revelation, Phasma shoots them before they can do anything, but before she can shoot Finn, he cuts her hand off, prompting her to knock Finn aside with her baton. Just when she prepares to give Finn a final blow saying that he was always 'scum,' Finn responds, 'Rebel scum' and shoots her with one of the dead stormtroopers' weapons.
Rose & Finn Go To Where They Belong Finn and Rose aboard a shuttle, and when Rose asks Finn where they are going, Finn answers that they are going to go to Crait to help the Resistance, which is where they belong.
Rey & Chewie in the Falcon During the Battle of Crait, Rey and Chewbacca fly the Millennium Falcon and see the First Order attacking a concentrated point on the ground where Luke is standing. It's unknown whether they knew that Luke wasn't physically there.
The Costumes and Creatures of Canto Bight Though necessarily not a deleted scene, this sequence is a compilation of unused footage from the scenes at Canto Bight, which showcases the creature designs and the impressive sets that went into making the location from the final cut of the film.
↑Solo Snowball Fight Deleted Scene Revealed on StarWars.com
↑Long Lost LaserDisc Found, Features Behind-The-Scenes Star Wars Footage
External linksEdit
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Deleted Scenes Teaser on StarWars.com
It’s a scene etched into every Star Wars fan’s mind. The roguish anti-hero Han Solo sits alone at bare table in the Mos Eisley cantina. An alien bounty hunter pulls up a chair to confront him. After some tense chit-chat, the amphibian-looking barfly pulls a gun and fires a laser blast inches from Solo’s head. Without batting an eye, Han fires a return blast under the table, killing the bounty hunter and sauntering away from the grisly yet PG-rated scene. Everybody’s seen it. Except not.
That impromptu shootout in the first Star Wars is but one of the sequences that diverges from what audiences saw when the movie was originally released in 1977, and it’s perhaps the most infamous of writer/director George Lucas’s endless tinkering with his beloved space saga. This means that a whole generation of supposedly passionate fans have been living a lie. The galaxy far, far away that fans like me fell in love with is a different film entirely.
I confess that I love Star Wars far too much. It’s a cultural artifact that permeates my whole being. I couldn’t count how many Star Wars birthdays I’ve had, how many toys I’ve bought, and how many home video editions of the original trilogy I owned. I’ve even made some of my best friends by challenging them to exceedingly nerdy Star Wars trivia (Q: What was the number of the garbage compactor that nearly killed Han, Luke, and Leia in the first movie? A: If you don’t know it, we aren’t best friends.)
And yet I’ve never seen the original version of Star Wars — a crime that should be punishable by freezing me in Carbonite and shipping me off to an uncertain fate with Boba Fett. But in 2015, it requires nothing shy of an actual quest if you want to find Lucas’s 1977 original, the ur-Star Wars from which the subsequent multi-multi-billion-dollar cultural empire sprang. Lucas has ensured the “original” is a tampered-with version he now sells riven with edits and festooned with computerized effects. To see his original vision, one must dig.
The first version of the iconic movie I saw on the big screen was as a wide-eyed scamp in 1997, when Sith Lord Lucas spiffed up the original trilogy to commemorate their 20th anniversary. He packaged the revamped versions of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and The Return of the Jedi under the heading “Star Wars Trilogy: Special Edition.” He tweaked the films throughout — mostly souping up the quantity and purported quality of the special effects — as a dry run for the impending prequel trilogy that Lucas would begin inflicting on despondent audiences two years later.
Perhaps the most egregious changes were to the 1977 original itself, which, because of Lucas’s prequel plans, would later be re-labeled as Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, an inelegant heresy. Some changes were cosmetic, polishing up little details. Others were far more substantial. As he spruced up some scenes with CGI, and blatantly overhauled others, Lucas made mad bank while claiming the updates fulfilled an old artistic vision that movie-making tech in the ‘70s forced him to defer.
Kids like me embraced it without any qualms whatsoever — seeing Star Wars was, after all, a turning point in my life, as it will be for 10-year-olds who see Rogue One in December. But older viewers, long-versed in the language of that universe, had plenty to gripe about.
Eventually, I wised up to Lucas’s changes. The movie’s impact somehow ebbed. What I’d seen wasn’t Star Wars. It was Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Special Edition. But am I taking this too seriously? Maybe Lucas had a point. Anybody familiar with the history of the original movie knows he was undercut by the studio at nearly every angle, forcing him to make quick, potentially regrettable decisions that could have compromised the vision of his space epic. Compared to the changes made to those originals, the compromises seem trivial.
Take, for example, one awful addition to the Special Edition in a scene cut from the 1977 release. Han Solo confronts a human version of Jabba the Hutt in Docking Bay 94. The Falstaffian human actor portraying Jabba in 1977 was replaced by a laughably obvious CGI creation in 1997, worsened only by an even crappier-looking computer enhanced Solo stepping on CG-Jabba’s tail. Lucas also added an understated introduction of Empire Strikes Back fan-favorite Boba Fett, who now can be seen silently lurking in the background before turning and staring straight into the camera. Fans couldn’t believe what they were seeing. What was this hackneyed pandering in their prized Star Wars?
The greatest affront came in that Mos Eisley cantina scene. The version I first saw had Solo defending himself, returning fire after that first errant blast. The original version, I later learned, had Solo straight-up blasting this marble-eyed Greedo customer (who, let’s face it, was probably going to kill Solo eventually anyway) and swing out of the cantina like the John Wayne gunslinger his character is set up to be.
The abhorrent CG-Jabba is one thing. Han returning fire was another. No other addition to the original films pissed fans off more. The rallying cry of “Han shot first” became shorthand for fans everywhere who felt betrayed by art that was toned down to be more marketable to parents. George Lucas, one of the richest men in the world, sold out the very people who made him so wealthy.
The rejiggered scene prompts Star Wars geeks to lose their collective shit, because it fundamentally changes Solo. Through the chintzy reconfiguring that has the bounty hunter shoot at Han first, Lucas removed the moral ambiguity of the morally ambiguous Han Solo. To audiences, and to the character’s personality, it just made no damn sense.
Lucas would defend his addition years later, but he undercut the outcry by basically saying fans were wrong from the get-go. The controversy over who shot first, Greedo or Han Solo, in Episode IV, what I did was try to clean up the confusion, but obviously it upset people because they wanted Solo (who seemed to be the one who shot first in the original) to be a cold-blooded killer, but he actually isn’t,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “It had been done in all close-ups and it was confusing about who did what to whom. I put a little wider shot in there that made it clear that Greedo is the one who shot first, but everyone wanted to think that Han shot first, because they wanted to think that he actually just gunned him down.”
That scene came to represent the failures of the Special Editions. The needless additions seemed only to address Lucas’s personal hangups with his own work — and, not coincidentally, line his pockets anew. Star Wars fanatics loved the movie already, so why would Lucas endorse a repackaging that undercut the scrappy, DIY charm that made the original adventure a worldwide phenomenon?
“To me, the Special Edition ones are the films I wanted to make,” Lucas explained when the original trilogy was released in a DVD boxset in 2004. “Anybody that makes films knows the film is never finished. It’s abandoned or it’s ripped out of your hands, and it’s thrown into the marketplace, never finished.”
This notion of the original Star Wars as an incomplete draft made me wonder. Unaltered versions of the original trilogy are available — but, because they’re out of production, they’re not available through official channels. Why is it so difficult for a fan, like me, who doesn’t want to suss out shady Deep Web torrents or to hunt down bootlegs of the 1977 version? We should be in a world where we can have both, but because Lucas is as stubborn as he is, whatever new version we get of the perpetually updated movies are the 100 percent official canonical versions.
It’s a bitch to find the originals. But still, I couldn’t shake the question: Am I a Star Wars fraud for having never seen them?
As I set out on my geeky quest, I considered first editions. What compels us to exhume originals, as if whatever it was about that purest precedent somehow represents an ideal version? Lucas himself hinted at this before the Special Edition release: “There will only be one [version of the films]. Download do need for speed underground 2 completo en. And it won’t be what I would call the ‘rough cut,’ it’ll be the ‘final cut.’ The other one will be some sort of interesting artifact that people will look at and say, ‘There was an earlier draft of this.’ The same thing happens with plays and earlier drafts of books. In essence, films never get finished, they get abandoned.”
When people sit down this summer to take in a Shakespeare in the Park performance, they can’t expect the play, any play, will be the exact iteration of the play from when it was first performed 400 years ago. People may have a notion of Hamlet, but the play has evolved across many different forms and configurations. First editions of books, like movies, feel like a set medium. But they, too, take on new additions and subtractions through different releases.
Take the 50th anniversary edition of perennial high school syllabus classic On the Road. It was a bound printing of author Jack Kerouac’s masterpiece taken from the one continuous scroll on which he wrote the manuscript in the early ‘50s — closer to the original source material, perhaps it was more holy to Kerouac devotees. And earlier this year, reclusive author Harper Lee’s second novel Go Set a Watchman ended up being a repackaged early draft of To Kill a Mockingbird, released more than a half-century earlier. Lee’s story, too, morphed along the way, decidedly for the better.
Why, then, don’t audiences accept an updated Star Wars like a new Macbeth, a new edition of a book, or a remastering of your favorite album? Are Star Wars fans really more captivated by the 1977 original, or are they simply fetishizing their nostalgia? The only way to find out was to get ahold of Lucas’s discarded early cut.
Let’s get this out of the way: Unless you’re a filthy rich collector or an outrageously lucky fanboy who owns an original projector, there’s no way to see Star Wars on actual film. Even if they’re somehow shown in public, Lucasfilm reportedly confiscates the reels when they surface. When theaters do show the movies, they’re undoubtedly the Special Editions or another iteration after that, and they’re most likely not on film.
It seemed like my Holy Grail, my white whale, but that also my destiny was a failure before I even began to look for it. Even in previous interviews, George Lucas was there to taunt me. “I’m not going to spend […] the money and the time to refurbish [the original], because to me,” he said, “it doesn’t really exist anymore.” If I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted without emptying out my entire savings account or finding a time machine, I figured the best way to go about it was to find something commercially available that I could legitimately watch in 2015.
Screenings of the actual films are so limited that when the prestigious Brooklyn Academy of Music’s BAMcinematek wanted to show Return of the Jedi during a series last year highlighting puppets on film, they were forced to project a copy of the movie on Blu-ray. Try looking for celluloid on eBay, and you’d be lucky to merely find cut up film strips, not an entire 35mm reel.
The DVDs are similarly messed with and full of additional post-Special Edition tinkering that borders on the completely inconsequential. For instance, the scream that Obi-Wan Kenobi uses to scare away the Tusken Raiders that attack Luke — affectionately known to Star Wars geeks as the “Krayt Dragon Call” — has been increasingly pitched up and changed from what it had been before.
I couldn’t do laserdiscs because no sane person has a laserdisc player these days. The same goes for a VHS player, which I surprisingly do have, but the most widely available versions of the movie on VHS are the Special Editions anyway.
They’ve even committed the cardinal sin of having some of the worst parts of the prequel trilogy intrude on the original trilogy, like inserting Hayden Christensen in for actor Sebastian Shaw as Anakin Skywalker at the end of Return of the Jedi. Any young Padawan would know that this little turn of the knife in our geeky backs makes absolutely no sense considering they’ve kept Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan instead of replacing him with the prequel’s Ewan McGregor … but I digress.
The most widely available versions of the movies are on Blu-ray, but those are counted out because they’ve also been mercilessly altered based on Lucas’s whims. Here we get even more prequel intrusion with Vader’s widely despised “NOOOOO!” from Revenge of the Sithadded to the end of Return of the Jedi for puzzling effect. If you asked George Lucas, “Why? the only answer he’d muster would be, “Why not?”
The home video options seemed like a dead end until I realized a 2006 limited edition DVD could be exactly what I was looking for.
After years of pressure from nitpicky fans like me, Lucas released limited edition DVDs in 2006 of the exact same versions of the individual movies previously released in 2004. Buried on a second disc of those releases were what was billed as the “theatrical versions” of the original movies, allegedly untouched and unscathed.
To my surprise, they were widely available on everywhere from Amazon to eBay and even accessible via the DVD plan from Netflix. But when I finally got my hands on a copy of the first movie, I would be sadly disappointed.
The 2006 DVD theatrical editions are a relatively intact example of the early versions of the movies, and they’re missing the changes/vandalism of the Special Edition onwards, but instead of simply taking the movies from the original film negatives and slapping them onto a DVD, these theatrical editions were actually taken from the so-called LaserDisc Definitive Collection first released in 1993. The irony here was that these definitive editions were anything but and included remastered changes that were basically another dry run from Lucas for the Special Editions that launched this whole mess four years later.
Close would have to do. The thrill of popping in a DVD of something resembling the original 1977 version still had me jazzed, until I saw the famous, “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” splayed in a grainy haze in the middle of my (humblebrag) relatively big flatscreen TV. The theatrical versions included on the 2006 DVDs are a non-anamorphic letterboxed transfer with a 4:3 aspect ratio, meaning there are huge back boxes on all four sides of the screen if you’re watching it on a widescreen.
It was another disappointment piled on top of a series of disappointments produced by Lucas passive-aggressively putting ugly transfers on the second discs of a release to prove his own point that they’re somehow inferior. But I kept on watching. I did do because for one, I was realizing a childhood dream. For another, fuck George Lucas.
I had searched out the closest thing to the original Star Wars I could possibly see, and what I got was something close to what I first experienced in 1997. It’s a downright fun movie, a scrappy sci-fi throwback that makes you forget the relative shittiness of the world for two hours and puts you into a huge galactic battle between good and evil with a hero, a damsel in distress, and their friends all just having a rollicking good time. It also looks like something crafted by human hands.
This theatrical version wasn’t the Platonic ideal I’d hoped for. But it showed the terrible updates to the Special Edition, and that the endless tinkering wasn’t justified. Star Wars is and always was an evolving thing, and people will just need to accept that it will grow as we grow with it.
When news of Disney’s $4 billionpurchase of Lucasfilm went through, rumors ran rampant that the original versions would finally be packaged and sold. Finally, the Mouse could override Lucasfilm’s intransigence! Alas, Disney still doesn’t ownStar Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, or Return of the Jedi — 20th Century Fox does. Until Fox decides to give fans a glimpse of the spark that started the fire, we’ll just have to enjoy the galaxy far, far away in whatever way we can.