George Lucas is infamous for having repeatedly altered his Star Wars films after release. As a result, there are a number of different cuts of the six original films, with the Original Trilogy being affected the most. In general, there are numerous tiny changes, with audio and dialogue being tweaked, and visual effects being altered. A comprehensive list can be found here
. Despite the critical tone taken here and implied by the title, it must be mentioned that these Special Editions were commercially successful and given their sales on Home Video on multiple formats, including Blu-Ray which came out when the extent of these changes attained mainstream knowledge, they have succeeded in Lucas' aim of bringing new audiences to the franchise for whom these Special Editions are the true Star Wars. Not to mention that a few changes were well received. The largest and most noticeable changes are listed below.
There are fan edits that aim at reworking some of the movies (the Original Trilogy in particular) to render them as close as possible to their original release state; more details can be found here.
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Original Trilogy
Star Wars/A New Hope
1981 Theatrical Re-Release
- The title "EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE" is added to the beginning of the opening title crawl to match the opening title crawl of The Empire Strikes Back. The film until then known only as Star Wars is thus given the retronym A New Hope. It appears that every version of the film released to home video in every medium (including long-defunct also-rans to VHS in The '80s) includes this change, except of course for the "original theatrical release" extras version from the 2006 DVD.
1997 Special Edition
- On Tatooine, several dewbacks and sandtroopers are added to the scene where they search for the droids and an imperial landing shuttle takes off in the background.
- CGI is added to the landspeeder to make it look more like it's actually hovering.
- In the far shot of Mos Eisley, a ship can be seen taking off.
- There are additional shots showing two droids fighting, a cameo of Dash Rendar's Outrider, and a Jawa getting thrown off of its Ronto mount.
- A CGI dewback appears outside the cantina.
- Shots of the Wolfman alien are replaced with two new◊ aliens◊.
- Infamously, Greedo shoots at Han first. His shot misses horribly and Han is altered to dodge it slightly. This is by far the most well known example on this page and possibly in all of film. It has gone memetic, and the controversy over it even has its own Wikipedia page.
- A Deleted Scene is added with Jabba the Hutt confronting Han in the launch bay. The original human actor has been digitally replaced with the slug we know and love, and his lines have been translated into Huttese. Also, Boba Fett appears in the background as part of Jabba's entourage. This also required a slightly out-of-character bit where Han steps on Jabba’s tail, as Harrison Ford walking around the original human Jabba was now physically impossible.
- The explosion of Alderaan is digitally redone, including a more realistic Praxis effect ring.
- Instead of running into a dead end on the Death Star, Han runs into a hangar bay full of hundreds of stormtroopers.
- There is a digital shot of the Millennium Falcon flying below Yavin towards Yavin 4.
- A deleted scene between Luke and Redshirt rebel pilot Biggs Darklighter is added. This restores one half of a deleted subplot about Luke's old friend-turned Imperial Academy student-turned rebel pilot, though an earlier scene between Luke and Biggs at Tosche Station is not and has never been restored.
- There are CG shots of X-wings and Y-wings launching from Yavin 4 and getting ready for the assault on the Death Star.
- Many shots of R2-D2 in space are edited to restore his intended blue coloring; The Chroma Key used to create these scenes in the original version of the film would've affected R2's blue panels, so a model with black panels was used instead.
- The Death Star's destruction is altered in the same way as Alderaan's described above.
- During the rebel celebration, the rebel soldiers on the sides who were originally matte paintings have been replaced with real people.
2004 DVD Release
- Ben Kenobi's scream to frighten off the Tusken Raiders is made much more high-pitched to sound like a Krayt dragon.
- The notorious Han/Greedo scene is altered, with Han shooting at almost the same time as Greedo rather than in response to Greedo shooting at him, and his dodging is made more realistic.
- The CGI used on Jabba the Hutt is redone to bring it up to the quality of his appearance in The Phantom Menace.
- English written words on the tractor beam control panels are replaced with the Aurebesh alphabet used in the Star Wars universe.
- The well-known shot of a stormtrooper bumping his head on the door is embraced, with an audible bumping sound added.
2011 Blu-Ray Release
- A large rock is added in front of the hole where R2-D2 hides from the Tusken Raiders. The rock’s size is such that it doesn’t appear R2 would’ve been able to enter the hole at all.
- Ben Kenobi's scream is once again altered.
- The Greedo scene is altered further to make Greedo and Han shoot at each other simultaneously. It now runs as long as the original theatrical version.
2019 Disney+ Release
- Greedo now shouts "Ma klounkee!" (allegedly Huttese for "This will be the end of you!") before Han kills him. According to Disney, this change was done by George Lucas shortly before he sold Lucasfilm. It's possible it was a planned edit for the Blu-ray release that was discarded in the editing process.
The Empire Strikes Back
1997 Special Edition
- The wampa that menaces Luke, barely glimpsed in the original version, gets much more time on-screen, including new footage of the monster eating a dead tauntaun.
- First-person shots inside the snowspeeder cockpits are touched up, so the outside environment is no longer faintly visible through the instrument panels and windshield borders.
- When the Falcon hides in the garbage, a CG shot of Slave I flying after it is added.
- Like in A New Hope, the monochrome R2-D2 seen in several space scenes have been recolored to restore his intended appearance.
- There are new shots of Bespin with CG cloud cars and the Millennium Falcon.
- There is a brief tracking shot of a cloud car patrolling Cloud City. During this shot there is a Freeze-Frame Bonus appearance of the Starspeeder 3000 from Star Tours.
- A number of wall panels in Cloud City are replaced with windows.
- In the shot where Luke approaches Cloud City, a cloud car in the background has been digitally replaced with a Tibanna refinery.
- Oddly, when Luke jumps off the platform of his own free will, he is altered to scream when he falls. Even stranger, the scream is taken from the Emperor's death in Return of the Jedi.
- A series of alterations explicitly show how Darth Vader got from Cloud City to his Star Destroyer, where the original merely implied it. First, Vader's terse "Get my shuttle," is replaced with a new line, "Alert my Star Destroyer to prepare for my arrival." This is followed by a new shot of Vader walking towards a lambda shuttle. More new shots are inserted in the middle of the Millennium Falcon's escape: the lambda shuttle flying towards the Star Destroyer, and Vader disembarking the shuttle aboard the Star Destroyer. (The last one is actually unused footage originally shot for Return of the Jedi.)
- A digital hatch is added when Lando rescues Luke underneath Cloud City.
2004 DVD Release
- In the scene where Palpatine appears via hologram, he is digitally replaced with Ian McDiarmid, who's played him in all of his other appearances starting with the next film. Originally he was portrayed by Marjorie Eaton with chimpanzee eyes superimposed over the top of her own and dubbed over by Clive Revill. The dialogue between Palpatine and Vader is partially rewritten to have Palpatine inform Vader of Luke Skywalker's true identity. Of all the alterations to the films, this is perhaps the least contested since it took out what many had come to regard as an awkward piece of Early-Installment Weirdness.
- For that matter, he's been redubbed by Palpatine's usual voice actors in several languages including Georges Claisse in French (who had voiced him since The Phantom Menace).
- Boba Fett has been redubbed by Temuera Morrison, who plays his genetic source Jango Fett in Attack of the Clones. His ship, Slave I, is also altered to sound like it does in that film. His voice replaced that of Jason Wingreen.
- Luke's inexplicable scream after falling that was added in the previous edition is removed.
- Only the left half of the Star Destroyer bridge set was constructed, meaning that shots taking place on the right side had to be mirrored. At the end of the film, when Vader asks if the Millennium Falcon's hyperdrive has been deactivated, Piett's rank insignia is on the wrong side of his uniform. This is fixed in the DVD release.
Return of the Jedi
1997 Special Edition
- The original Max Rebo Band musical number "Lapti Nek" is replaced with a new one, "Jedi Rocks", which is much longer and has many new shots of CG aliens. In many cases these replace the original puppets, most notably the lead singer Sy Snootles (though the original puppet with the feather atop her head can still be seen in the background of wide shots).
- Boba Fett is shown flirting with one of the dancers. Jason Wingreen notably objected to this, saying he’d envisioned Boba as being asexual.
- Impressively, Femi Taylor (who played the Twi'lek slave dancer Oola) had aged so little in the intervening 14 years that she was able to appear in several newly-shot takes - including a close-up - showing more detail of her encounter with the rancor.
- "Boussh's" conversation with Jabba is now subtitled.
- A CG herd of banthas appears on the way to the Pit of Carkoon.
- A noticeably bad shot of a much too large guard on top of the sail barge is redone.
- The sarlacc is given a beak mouth and extra tentacles.
- The destruction of the Second Death Star is edited the same as the original one and Alderaan as mentioned above.
- Shots of celebrations on Bespin, Tatooine, and Coruscant are added to the ending.
- The music playing over the celebration scenes on Endor leading into the end credits is replaced, changing a tribal Ewok chant into a far more uplifting piece that accurately reflects the sense of elation the victory over the Empire would bring.
2004 DVD Release
- The subtitles between Jabba and "Boushh" added in the last edition are removed, so C-3PO's translation is relevant again.
- Among other changes to his facial features, Vader's eyebrows have been removed, to reflect how they were burned off in Revenge of the Sith. His eyes were also edited to look more like Hayden Christensen's.
- An additional celebration shot, this one on Naboo, is added.
- In the celebration on Coruscant shot, the Galactic Senate and Jedi Temple buildings from the prequels are added to the background.
- In what is likely the second most infamous example of this trope (after "Han Shot First"), Anakin Skywalker's original actor Sebastian Shaw is replaced as a Force ghost by Anakin's actor from the prequels, Hayden Christensen. This was done by inserting completely unrelated, already-shot footage of Christensen from Revenge of the Sith into the scene.
2011 Blu-Ray Release
- A CG Dug (Sebulba's species) appears in Jabba's palace.
- Ewoks have CG eyelids and blink.
- When R2-D2 is shot on Endor, more of his hidden tools seen in the prequels appear as he malfunctions.
- Before Vader throws the Emperor down the pit, he shouts a Big "NO!", similar to the infamous scene in Revenge of the Sith.
Prequel Trilogy
The Phantom Menace
2001 DVD Release
- The podrace sequence is extended with new footage, while also removing a shot of Watto cheering "Sebulba!"
- A new air taxi scene is added to the arrival on Coruscant.
2011 Blu-Ray Release
- The puppet Yoda is replaced with a CGI Yoda in all of his scenes. This was because Lucas had always intended Yoda to be fully CGI in the prequels (he would be in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith), but early attempts at it were unsatisfactory, forcing them to use the puppet.
- An effects error causing Fode and Beed's hand to pass through their vest is fixed.
- Right after Jabba the Hutt's introduction before the podrace, a new voice is heard from a spectator when the camera is focused on the crowd.
- The Vote of No Confidence scene is altered to remove the "Vote now!" chants from the crowd, leaving a general uproar in its place.
- Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan's Force speed effect in the opening (when they escape the Droidekas) is redone to look more realistic. A close-up shot of Nute Gunray and Rune Haako watching a viewscreen showing the Jedi escaping is replaced for a wide shot with a new effect for the screen itself.
Attack of the Clones
2002 DVD Release
- Several speeders were removed from a shot during the bounty hunter pursuit scene.
- New dialogue from Padmé was added to the scene where Anakin confesses to the Tusken slaughter to her.
- After Padmé falls out of the gunship on Geonosis, a clone trooper asks if she is all right. Her alert response of "Yes" has been changed to a more realistically groggy "Uh-huh".
- Anakin's mechanical hand now holds Padmé's hand during the closing wedding sequence (this was originally included in the DLP theatrical release of the film, but not in the 35 mm version).
- Moments before Mace Windu decapitates Jango Fett, sparks and a slight puff of smoke from Jango's jetpack can be seen, signifying that his jetpack malfunctioned.
2011 Blu-Ray Release
- During the chase on Coruscant, when Anakin and Obi-Wan pass through the power couplings, several shots are rearranged.
- During Anakin's nightmare scene, a voiceover of his mother Shmi is added, saying "Anakin, help me!"
- After Yoda saves Obi-Wan and Anakin from Count Dooku's falling pillar, the reaction shots of Yoda and then Anakin and Obi-Wan are moved to before the shots of Dooku escaping on his ship and Padmé Amidala and the clone troopers arriving and firing at him (this creates a noticeable irregularity in background music).
Other Versions
- The IMAX release of the film cut out numerous scenes in order to fit in the two hour time limit for IMAX movies:
- The scene where the Jedi Council meets with Palpatine after the first assassination attempt.
- The part with Obi-Wan in the Jedi Archives.
- The scene where Anakin complains about Obi-Wan's mentorship skills to Padmé.
- Padmé and Anakin meeting with Queen Jamillia on Naboo, the meadow picnic scene and Anakin riding on a shaak.
- Dooku speaking with Obi-Wan while Obi-Wan is being held prisoner on Geonosis.
- Anakin and Obi-Wan's initial meeting with Padmé.
- Also, Bail Organa's lines are all removed.
- And finally, due to the limited size of IMAX platters, the closing credits are played in a slideshow format rather than the traditional upward scroll.
- During their duel on Kamino, a shot of Jango Fett headbutting Obi-Wan was removed from the U.K. version of the film in order to obtain a PG rating from the BBFC. This shot is included in the U.S. version of the film.
Revenge of the Sith
2005 DVD Release
- When changing scenes from Obi-Wan in Padmé's spaceship to a burned Anakin on Mustafar, the original wipe was altered to a straight cut for the DVD version. The wipe was, however, restored for the Blu-Ray release.
- The DVD has a different wipe after Darth Vader's Big "NO!", which was also slightly shortened. The Blu-ray keeps this change.
2011 Blu-Ray Release
- Clone dialogue is added when Commander Cody and his clone troopers arrive on Utapau and attack General Grievous' droid army.
- On Kashyyyk, several buildings are given moss and rust to make them look significantly more aged.
Sequel Trilogy
The Force Awakens
2016 Blu-Ray/DVD Release
- Though unnoticed by many, the font of the end credits of The Force Awakens was made slightly smaller, and thus the end credits sequence was lengthened, necessitating rearranging the music.
The Rise of Skywalker
2020 Disney+ Release
- The film's blue tint of The Rise of Skywalker was heavily reduced to a more natural colour temperature.
Other
Other
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The Season 1 premiere, "Ambush", appears to have a line of dialogue cut from the Disney+ release, the line being "We're losing our shields", spoken by a clone officer. The closed captions were later changed to reflect this. However, it's unknown if this change was done by accident or on purpose.
- Star Wars Rebels: Season 2 premiere "The Siege of Lothal" ends on a scene where Darth Vader makes a report to the Emperor. In the original episode, Palpatine is voiced by Sam Witwer, in a Role Reprise from the Force Unleashed video game series. However, the version of the episode available on Amazon Video recently replaced Witwer with Ian McDiarmid, the Emperor's iconic actor who had also reprised the role in Palpatine's further appearances on the series in late season 4. This change was also reported on Disney+ among people previewing the service in the Netherlands prior to its official release on November 12, 2019.
- In the first edition of the novel Leia, Princess of Alderaan, and in the audiobook, while Leia is being persuaded that it's okay for her to have fun and a personal life in the midst of galactic suffering and unrest, she quotes an Alderaanian philosopher who said, "Strength through joy". Strength Through Joy was a state-operated organization in Nazi Germany that subsidized leisure and vacations for certain types of German citizen, to keep them content with their situation and aid in propaganda. Claudia Gray apologized as soon as it was brought to her attention. Later editions changed the quote to "Joy drives out fear", dodging the Unfortunate Implications of having Princess Leia endorse a Nazi slogan."I've learned that one 3-word phrase in LPOA was something used in Third Reich propaganda. Obviously, I'm horrified. I never would have included it, had I been aware of the historical use of this phrase. My error was one of ignorance, and I'm incredibly sorry."
