The Ewoks before they became marketable.
Examples of What Could Have Been from Return of the Jedi.- George Lucas wanted Steven Spielberg to direct, and Spielberg was more than happy to. The problem was that Lucas had resigned from the Director's Guild of America over fines imposed by the union for his violating crediting rules on The Empire Strikes Back (i.e. not crediting Irwin Kershner in the opening at all but still crediting himself via the Lucasfilm logo). According to DGA rules, Lucas was now running an officially non-union shop, and no DGA director, such as Spielberg, would be permitted to join such a production without penalty. (The same situation caused Gary Oldman to turn down the role of General Grievous for Revenge of the Sith.)
- David Lynch turned down an offer to direct, feeling that his and Lucas' styles and visions would end up clashing. But he did eventually get to bring another science fiction epic to the screen, one which ironically helped to inspire Star Wars.
- Spielberg at one point considered suggesting to Lucas to have the then-up and coming Paul Verhoeven direct the film, but quickly decided against it after seeing the explicit content in Spetters. "I suppose he was scared," Verhoeven would later comment, "that the Jedi would immediately start fucking." He would later go on to make it big in the sci-fi industry, though certainly not in the most family-friendly ways.
- David Cronenberg was asked to direct, but he turned it down in favour of The Dead Zone and Videodrome.
- Terry Gilliam was another candidate to direct, as he wasn't in the Guild and was in England.
- John Gielgud, Ben Kingsley and Laurence Olivier were considered for the Emperor.
- A virtually unknown Alan Rickman (who to this point had only done stage work) auditioned for Moff Jerjerrod.
- The original title of the film was Return of the Jedi, but Lawrence Kasdan opined it was a weak title, so Lucas changed it Revenge of the Jedi. After consulting with his producers, however, Lucas realized that Jedi were above the concept of revenge, so he went back to his first option. Still, this lasted long enough for some posters to be made with the title, which are now one of the franchise’s most prized collectors’ items.
- Prior to the making of the film, Mark Hamill speculated that it would have involved Luke turning to the dark side, with the main conflict being generated by whether or not he'll be turned back. A similar plot thread eventually re-emerged in the Dark Empire serial.
- Because Harrison Ford initially only signed on to two Star Wars movies, his character Han was carbon-frozen at the end of Empire; a fate intended to allow the possibility of a third film without him if negotiations fell through. However, before production, executive Howard Kazanjian told George Lucas that he could convince Ford to come back. He made a deal with Ford's agent good enough to get Harrison to do the final movie so Han was written back into the story.
- Even after agreeing to be in the film, Harrison Ford wanted Han to make a Heroic Sacrifice to give the film "a little extra weight". Kasdan concurred, planning to make it happen during a raid on an Imperial base near the beginning of the third act, but Lucas vetoed it because he wanted the story to end on a much happier note (and because toy sales would have suffered with a dead Han).
- In Lucas' initial plans for the franchise, the Emperor wasn't supposed to appear in person until Episode IX (another version, possibly a posterior version of the script, called for the Emperor appearing yet surviving at the end). In line with those plans, Leia would become the "queen" of her people and Luke Skywalker would walk off alone into the Tatooine desert "like Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti westerns" (as remarked by Gary Kurtz) to spend a time in seclusion, ultimately creating a more bittersweet ending. It would've lead to another three movies that would have been about Luke becoming a Jedi Master, discovering his sister (who wouldn't have been Leia, as their brief kiss in the previous film shows) and finally defeating the Emperor and the Empire along with him in IX. However, after filming Empire, Lucas decided he didn't want to make six more films to finish the story (he wanted to be able to see his family and friends once in a while) and changed Episode VI to a much more simplistic retelling of A New Hope to end things once and for all.
- The script described a little more detail about Luke and Leia's mother: she was disguised as Leia's adoptive parents' handmaid and died when Leia is about 4. This was partially canon until Episode III; it was then retconned that the handmaid was actually Sabé, Padme's handmaid/decoy from The Phantom Menace played by Keira Knightley. Amusingly, Mark Hamill said in 2018 that he had an idea of revealing that Boba Fett was Luke's mother and a double agent secretly working for the Rebels, making it a case of Samus Is a Girl, but Lucas didn't like it.
- Originally, Dagobah and Yoda were not meant to appear again, but Marquand talked Lucas into writing them in to properly confirm to Luke as to whether Vader was his father or not. Still, Lucas only became convinced to do so after a discussion with a children's psychologist, who told him young moviegoers might come to believe Vader had lied.
- The original plan for "native allies on Endor" was not Ewoks, but instead a band of escaped Wookiee slaves. However, Lucas wanted the battle to be fought "old school" with bows and arrows, and Wookiees had been already established to understand advanced technology.note He then decided to "Cut them in half and call them Ewoks."
- The Ewoks were to be accompanied by the Yuzzums. Both species went through different designs, more resembling creatures from folklore such as trolls. Some versions were gangly with elongated legs and arms; some had an elongated nose, a beak, or a pig-like snout; some designs lacked fur; and some had a more pug-like face and would not be mistaken for a teddy bear. At least one Yuzzum made it into the film as a background alien in Jabba’s palace named Wam Lufba. A second CGI Yuzzum named Joh Yowza was later added to the expanded “Jedi Rocks” musical number in the special edition.
- Originally Moff Jerjerrod, the sort-of whiny overseer of the Death Star's construction, was written as Grand Moff Jerjerrod. He was Palpatine's personal representative, and schemed with him to turn Luke and betray Vader. When Vader finds out, he breaks Jerjerrod's neck. From this important role he was reduced to just another Imperial flunkey with a minor connection to the Emperor. The final script nonetheless included scenes of Jerjerrod being ordered to destroy Endor by the Emperor should the shield fall, but hesitating to actually go through with it, allowing Lando time to destroy the station's main reactor; said scenes were filmed, but ultimately cut.
- Instead of the Endor moon Imperial base, the final battle of the film would have been the Imperial capital, an overly polluted planet named Had Abbadon, which orbited by two Death Stars (later reduced to only one) and a paradise-like green moon named Jus-Endor. The Emperor would consult with Vader and Jerjerrod in the throne room in Had Abbadon, surrounded by a lava pit. Also, General Maximilian Veers from Empire Strikes Back would have reappeared to command the Had Abbadon garrison and personally lead the battle on the moon.
- In the final battle, Ben Kenobi and Yoda would appear alive and physical to taunt the Emperor, with Ben being struck by the Emperor's lightning instead of Vader. Despite claiming that they came back to help Luke fight Vader and the Emperor, they would just stand and watch as Luke and Vader duelled, commenting on the battle. Yoda would prevent Vader from becoming one with the Force, allowing "Annikin" to appear and describe his fall to the Dark Side, and Vader and the Emperor would fall into the lava pit. Obi-Wan would explain how they escaped being pulled into the Force in order to not lose their identity, how he blamed himself for everything that happened, and that Owen was his brother.
- Another proposed ending would have had Luke putting on Vader's helmet, vowing to destroy the Rebel fleet and rule the galaxy, then aiming the Death Star at Had Abbadon and destroying it.
- After the final story was redacted, the Millennium Falcon was originally going to be blown up along with the Death Star II, which is briefly alluded to in the finished film, with Han having a funny feeling he'll never see the Falcon again before leaving for Endor. According to a rumor, Lando was considered to die with the ship, but Lucasfilm has denied it.
- Luke's second lightsaber was originally planned to be blue, just like his first one, and it's even depicted as blue in some Jedi promotional material (such as this poster
◊ as well as the theatrical trailer). It was changed to green late in production in order to make it better stand out against the blue sky during the barge fight sequence on Tatooine. - There are several women among the Rebel pilots seen during the briefing aboard Home One (one can be seen just behind Lando's shoulder in his conversation with Han), who never actually appear in the actual battle sequence, though at least three were known to have filmed cockpit scenes for the battle. One of these actresses did survive into the final cut film: one of the A-wing pilots is actually a woman redubbed by a male actor. The most significant cut was French model and actress Vivienne Chandler, who played an unnamed female X-wing pilot (later named Dorovio Bold). What made her cut surprising was that it appeared she would have played a significant role in the battle, as she recorded over a full page of dialogue. Footage of her in the cockpit of her X-wing recently resurfaced, indicating she was among the pilots to assault the Death Star itself, and her dialogue (in which she makes a distress call about a fatally-damaged stabilizer) suggests she would have been killed after crashing much like Red Leader had in the original film. It's unclear exactly why the women were cut, but it's been speculated there were concerns that audiences would be made uncomfortable by the thought of women being killed during a battle sequence.
- The visually-distinct B-wing fighters apparently had a substantial amount of footage filmed for use in the final battle. However, it was realized that the fighter's thin profile meant that it was incredibly difficult to pick up on screen, so all shots of the B-wings in action was cut after the Rebels break off when they realize the shield is still up.
- ILM's effects technicians devised a way to show the Death Star II's outer hull disintegrating before the station exploded, but ran out of time to actually implement the effect. It would instead be used in the destruction of the USS Enterprise in the following year's Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
- Oola's actress said there was originally a longer scene of her escaping the rancor with some intended Foreshadowing but it was never filmed due to time and budgeting.
- Due to negative fan reaction to Boba Fett's anticlimactic death, Lucas contemplated adding a scene to the 1997 Special Edition where Boba escapes the Sarlacc Pit alive. He ultimately decided not to, as he believed that doing so would give viewers false hope that Boba would show up later in the film. Boba did survive the Sarlacc Pit in Legends, and the same is true in the new canon, with Boba reappearing in The Mandalorian, and the escape itself being depicted in The Book of Boba Fett.
- The actress for a background character named Jess stated that she would have taken part in Oola's dance sequence; but due to the problems mentioned above, this was instead relegated to a scene in a fanfilm by Warwick Davis.
- The scene of Luke burning his father's armor was a late addition to the film, shot on Skywalker Ranch after the end of principal photography. It was added because Lucas became worried that audiences might think Luke had abandoned his father on the Death Star.
- Lucas originally intended that Ian McDiarmid would only portray the Emperor physically and that he would be dubbed over by Clive Revill, maintaining consistency with Empire Strikes Back. However, McDiarmid's voice for the character won Lucas over, and ultimately, McDiarmid's version of the Emperor would replace Revill's in the Empire special edition.
- A storyboard sequence in which a Rebel cruiser rammed a Star Destroyer, taking out both vessels, did not make it into the final cut.
