History Trivia / ReturnOfTheJedi

* WagTheDirector: The reason Admiral Ackbar doesn't celebrate along with the rest of the crew after the Rebel fleet brings down a Star Destroyer was due to the insistence of his actor, Tim Rose. Rose, having had friends drafted in the Vietnam War, believed that war, even in victory, should be a treated as a somber occasion, and refused to portray Ackbar as jubilant during such an occasion. He told the producers that if they didn't like his performance they could put someone else in the costume for that scene. Ultimately, Rose's performance was used in the final film.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Lucas had never intended there to be any question of whether Vader was actually Luke's father, and was quite surprised when after the release of ''Empire'' a sizable portion of the fanbase, including James Earl Jones himself, weren't willing to accept it on Vader's word alone. So he made sure to have the more trustworthy Yoda confirm it.

** Creator/AlecGuinness also didn't care for his brief involvement with the film either. He was reluctant to take up the role of Obi Wan a third time, even if it was just for what amounted to a cameo role, but he felt it would've been mean of him to turn it down.

* ActingInTheDark: Sebastian Shaw (Anakin Skywalker) initially didn't know that he portrayed a character in a ''Star Wars'' movie, though he had suspicion that "it's something to do with science-fiction". His presence during the filming was kept secret from all but the minimum cast and crew.

** Also, they don't steal any plans. All they gave to the Alliance was the information that the second Death Star wasn't operational yet (or so they thought), and that the Emperor himself personally oversaw the construction.

** The reason why the redeemed and unmasked Anakin Skywalker was portrayed by Sebastian Shaw, instead of Creator/DavidProwse who portrayed the masked Darth Vader, is because the redemption and unmasking scene is the emotional climax of the film, so the casting crew wanted an experienced actor for the role. Lucas also hadn't nailed down Anakin's age at the time, and so wanted an older actor (Prowse was 46, Shaw was 76).

* ApprovalOfGod: There is a fan theory suggesting that the old bearded guy from the Endor strike team (known as Nik Sant in Legends) was Rex from ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' and ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels''. Dave Filoni would flip flop on this issue. The current state is that Rex was at Endor, but whether he was the old bearded guy is ultimately up to the viewer.

* TorchTheFranchiseAndRun: While it obviously did not take, this was more or less Lucas's intent when making ''Jedi'' as noted in the Rinzler book. He had started to sour on his original hope for Star Wars to be serialized into multiple episodes, being especially worried about not being able to retain the cast and properly giving the characters closure. Creator/MarkHamill had a car accident before ''Empire'' which didn't stop production but did make Lucas scared about an incident like that putting a wrench into his plans for the future, his difficulty to attract talented directors with many of his first choices rejecting both ''Empire'' and ''Jedi'', and his fears that the novelty of ''Star Wars'' was waning by the '80s. In addition to all of that, there was his divorce with Marcia Lucas. As such, ''Return of the Jedi'' closed the original trilogy with subplots from multiple future parts merged into a whole, the Luke/Han/Leia romance suddenly resolved, and a complete victory achieved over the Empire. Tragically, Lucas's fears about the death of an important cast member would later be realized when Creator/CarrieFisher suddenly passed between the making of ''Film/TheLastJedi'' and ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'', necessitating the use of footage from deleted scenes to complete Leia's narrative.

* TorchTheFranchiseAndRun: While it obviously did not take, this was more or less Lucas's intent when making "Jedi" as noted in the Rinzler book. He had started to sour on his original hope for Star Wars to be serialized into multiple episodes, being especially worried about not being able to retain the cast and properly giving the characters closure. Creator/MarkHamill had a car accident before ''Empire'' which didn't stop production but did make Lucas scared about an incident like that putting a wrench into his plans for the future, his difficulty to attract talented directors with many of his first choices rejecting both ''Empire'' and ''Jedi'', and his fears that the novelty of ''Star Wars'' was waning by the '80s. In addition to all of that, there was his divorce with Marcia Lucas. As such, ''Return of the Jedi'' closed the original trilogy with subplots from multiple future parts merged into a whole, the Luke/Han/Leia romance suddenly resolved, and a complete victory achieved over the Empire. Tragically, Lucas's fears about the death of an important cast member would later be realized when Creator/CarrieFisher suddenly passed between the making of ''Film/TheLastJedi'' and ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'', necessitating the use of footage from deleted scenes to complete Leia's narrative.