FAQ for
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) More at IMDbPro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags are used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

McDiarmid was an experienced stage actor living in London at the time this movie was filmed. In early 1982 he had been appearing in Sam Shepard's play Seduced, in which he played Harry Hackamore, described by McDiarmid as an "aging, Howard Hughes-type character." Though only 37 at the time, McDiarmid was made up to resemble the elder Hughes, with wrinkled skin, long hair and fingernails. McDiarmid surmises that the producers decided not to cast an older actor, who may have been difficult to insure, and cast him because of his Seduced performance, as it showed his ability to believably play an older character in extreme theatrical make-up.

A Jedi's training consists of more than sword fight lessons, physical training and education in Force control; any Jedi Padawan (apprentice) had to complete the Jedi Trials in order to become a Jedi Knight. In old times, these trials were often done inside areas of the Jedi Temple, where the Force would create physical and mental challenges (perhaps partially through mind-control), which tested the candidate's skills, knowledge and determination. Luke faces one such trials in the cave on Dagobah, where his mind immediately manifests Darth Vader, indicating that he is still not in control of the Force.

There are special circumstances in which a Jedi Padawan has already proven himself in the field more than enough to earn him the title of Jedi Knight. In The Phantom Menace, Obi-Wan Kenobi was given the title after defeating a fully-trained Sith Lord almost single-handedly. Anakin Skywalker earned his title after single-handedly defending an outpost against the Separatists (Expanded Universe). Yoda and Ben already knew that Luke would not be able to defeat Darth Vader, and they feared that he would also be unable to resist the Dark Side of the Force. However, suprisingly, Luke managed to resist Vader's temptations after all.

So, despite Luke's unfortunate choice to leave his training, this was considered a successfully completed trial. Luke had also made himself a new light sabre (having lost his old one during the dual with Darth Vader in Cloud City), another test necessary in order to become a Jedi Knight. So with all this, Yoda concluded that Luke's training was indeed complete, and all that stood in the way of him becoming a Jedi Knight was another confrontation with Vader.

An understandable confusion, as it's never explained in the movies: In Episodes 2-3 the troops are clone troopers, cloned from the DNA of Jango Fett (played by Temeura Morrison). Boba Fett is also an unaltered clone of Jango, raised as his son. In the DVD edition of The Empire Strikes Back, Temeura Morrison dubbed over the voice of Boba Fett to help tie in the original trilogy to the new one. In episodes 4-6 there are also Galactic Imperial troopers (now known as stormtroopers). The reason that Temeura Morrison doesn't provide the voice is because, as the years went on, the Emperor disbanded clone squads and started accepting and drafting regular recruits. While there are still some clone units scattered throughout the galaxy, they are mostly obsolete.

However, Lucas has since gone on record saying that the stormtroopers that surround the shield generator's control center in this film are actually the clone troopers that Anakin leads during the assault on the Jedi Temple in Revenge of the Sith, so make of that what you will.

He was swallowed by the Sarlacc after Han accidentally activated his jetback. According to the expanded universe, which is considered canon for some reason, he managed to "blast" his way out from under the sand, but for the purposes of the films, he's dead as a doornail.

George Lucas actually stated on the audio commentary on the DVD that in retrospect, he regretted Boba Fett's fate, as he learned only after the movie how popular a cult figure the bounty hunter had become in the years between Empire and Jedi. Had Lucas known that when writing Return of the Jedi's screenplay, he would have given Fett a more heroic exit.

No. Although Leia proved her strength and courage in this film during several battle scenes, she has had no actual Jedi training, even though she has the potential to be a Jedi Knight.

If by 'originally' you mean since the very first draft, no. The earliest draft has General Luke Skywalker as an aging Jedi Master, while Annikin Starkiller is his apprentice. Annikin has a father, Kane Starkiller, and a brother, Deak Starkiller, who is killed by Vader early in the film. The Starkillers live on Utapau (which would eventually appear in Revenge of the Sith). Princess Leia, on the other hand, is the biological daughter of King Kayos and Queen Breha of Aquilae. Her brothers in this draft are Biggs and Windom.

In the second draft, Princess Leia has little more than a cameo. The biography "The Cinema of George Lucas" describes Leia as the niece of Owen and his wife Beru, and the sister to Biggs, Windy, and Luke, who live on the planet Utapau. Deak Starkiller is not killed. Instead, he is the character held captive by the Empire. General Luke Skywalker and Annikin Starkiller have been merged into a single character, Luke Starkiller. Biggs and Windy are now the youngest of the Starkiller siblings. Their father is simply known as Starkiller. The droids find Owen, having been instructed by Deak that he will lead them to "Angel Blue" (Luke Starkiller). The most interesting note about this draft is that it is Luke's brother who takes Leia's place as the Empire's captive. It would seem at this point that Leia had become Luke's sister; however, by the followng draft, this would be reversed again. (Interestingly, in the book "The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film," this draft is described with an important difference: Leia is named as Luke's cousin. Therefore, her role in the second draft is not completely certain.)

In the third draft Leia is from Ogana Major, and from all indications she is the biological daughter of their royal family. In the fourth draft, Ogana Major became Alderaan, and a slightly modified version of the original planet name, "Organa," became Leia's last name.

The first draft of The Empire Strikes Back features a brief appearance by the ghost of Luke's father, who tells Luke that he has a sister who is undergoing Jedi training on the other side of the galaxy. Based on this description, the sister in question is clearly not Leia.

At one point, Lucas claims to have considered making the principal character a female (some early production art reflects this direction) but eventually decided to keep both "versions" of the character as siblings.

So many people consider this as a major plothole, whilst others do not read too deeply into the mysticism of the films. It has been suggested that whilst Luke and Vader can sense each other as father and son, it is entirely plausible that Leia inherited feelings and images from her mother, in a sense creating a mother and daughter symmetry to the male dominated world of the Jedi. Remember that Leia's dialogue mentions "images" and "feelings" as opposed to witnessing events. Yoda does tell Luke that through the Force he could see "old friends long gone."

It's also possible Leia is not referring to Padme at all; she could be referring to Senator Organa's wife. She grew up thinking the Organas were her biological parents, which could be why Leia remembers "images" of her mother. However, this is clearly not the intended meaning of the scene, as Luke does specifically ask Leia "Do you remember your mother? Your real mother?" Leia does not react with suprise at the term "real," which would certainly suggest that she knew at that point that she was adopted, and understood to whom Luke was referring.

In reality, at the time Jedi was written, the backstory was different. The original script included an extended scene between Luke and Obi-Wan (which can be seen in the Jedi novelization by James Kahn), where Obi-Wan explains that both he and their mother wanted to protect them from the Emperor as long as possible; Obi-Wan therefore took Luke to the Lars family on Tatooine, while their mother took Leia to Alderaan (Obi-Wan also curiously refers to Owen Lars as his brother, an offhand comment which is never explained). It therefore can be implied that "Mrs. Skywalker" originally survived long enough for Leia to have a real, genuine memory of her.

The Emperor arranged a trap to completely wipe out the Rebellion. He allowed the Rebels to know the location of the shield generator, while having an entire legion of his best troops waiting for a ground team to attack, in order to let the rebels walk into an ambush. In space, he had his star fleet waiting to surround and obliterate the Rebels' star fleet. This would also leave Luke alone, as all his friends would be either captured or killed by the Empire, thus helping to coax him to the Dark Side.

However, in the end (as Luke said), his over-confidence was his weakness. Even with all his meticulous planning, the one thing he didn't expect was for the tiny, primitive, and (in his opinion) insignificant native creatures of Endor called Ewoks to assist the Rebels in capturing the base and ambushing the stormtroopers, and he may very well have been completely unaware of their presence at all. If the Ewoks hadn't been there, or hadn't helped the Rebels, the stormtroopers would likely have wiped out the small group of rebel insurgents. The shield generator would've remained operational, meaning the Death Star would have remained protected and the Rebels would've been defenseless against the Death Star's weapon.

This allowed the Rebels to destroy the shield generator and attack the internal structure of Death Star II. Even if his plan had succeeded, Luke still had refused to join the Dark Side after defeating Vader. In the Emperor's infinite arrogance, he also let his guard down near Vader, not expecting Vader to throw him over the ledge, killing him.

So even if the Rebellion had been destroyed, the Emperor would not have lived long enough to reap the rewards.

These are hand-drawn garbage mattes. A garbage matte is a technique of blotting out unwanted areas of a shot, such as the greyish boxes appearing around spacecraft in some scenes, where the matte was used to cut out mounting pylons for the models and other areas not covered by bluescreen. In this instance the black shapes were drawn over top of an area near Ian McDiarmid's face in order to block out a defect in his makeup that had gone unnoticed during filming. In a theatrical presentation, these garbage mattes are generally invisible; however, the lower range of colors and grayscale supported by home video standards often causes these effect artifacts to show up when viewed on DVD or VHS versions.

A few reasons. The most important reason is that the Emperor craves power. Vader was older, and is eventually defeated by Luke. Clearly he has lost his edge, so a younger apprentice who is just as, if not more powerful than Vader, would prove advantageous to the Emperor.

Another, lesser known reason which isn't addressed in the movies, but stated in many novelizations, is that after Vader was defeated by Obi-Wan in Episode III, he had lost all his limbs, which were replaced by artificial limbs, and was placed in a cumbersome survival suit. Because of this, his ability to use the Force was greatly reduced. Therefore, Luke would definitely been more powerful. As Lucas states in the "Making of" book for Revenge of the Sith, the Emperor will ultimately be disappointed in Anakin, and will eventually see Luke (and possibly Leia) as an opportunity.

A third reason which can tie in with the first two is that the Sith have 'The Rule of Two:' always one master and one apprentice; no more, no less. This is to reduce the risk of betrayal and competition for power that the Sith all crave. To have Luke and Vader as his apprentices, especially considering they were father and son, would definitely increase the chance that they would betray and kill the Emperor (indeed, Vader proposes this very idea to Luke in Empire [though that could have just been a ruse to coax Luke to the dark side, promising him 2nd in command of ruling the entire galaxy] and also suggests over-throwing the Emperor in Revenge of the Sith, which was only shortly after he had turned to the Dark Side, as well).

For the DVD release in 2004, George Lucas decided to replace the older Anakin "Force Ghost," played by Sebastian Shaw, with Hayden Christensen, who, at that time, was portraying the younger Anakin in Episode III, Revenge Of The Sith.

The principle reason for this change comes down to Anakin's choices in Episode III. Lucas is making the statement that when Anakin became Darth Vader, Anakin's Jedi spirit was lost. It now appears to Luke in this younger form because Luke has allowed Anakin to fulfil his prophecy and regain his former identity, which takes the physical shape and form that it had before he turned to the dark side; if the older force ghost was used, it should really, considering Anakin's human injuries, be scarred, limbless and deformed. It's also possibly because Sebastian Shaw might appear to be too old in the scene, since Anakin is forty-five years old, at most, by the end of Return of the Jedi, according to the series' official timeline.

This change is one of the most controversial alterations to the original trilogy, with some fans embracing the concept, others objecting on a variety of grounds, ranging from a dislike of Christensen's portrayal of Anakin, to a preference for Sebastian Shaw's performance in the scene (not to mention an absolute rejection of any alteration whatsoever to the original trilogy).

No. The story that Lando originally died and had his fate altered to survive after disastrous test screenings is a Star Wars Urban Legend. In no released version of the script does he die (nor in "The Annotated Screenplays"), and both writer Lawrence Kasdan and actor Billy Dee Williams have dismissed this rumour. The IGN review of the Star Wars Trilogy box set is incorrect in saying that Lando originally didn't make it out in time when the second Death Star exploded. There were never any test screenings of Return of the Jedi. However, Harrison Ford did strongly argue with George Lucas that his character Han Solo should die, quoting himself as having said "He's got no momma, no poppa; let's kill him off and add some weight to this thing." Lucas denied Ford his request, preferring to let Han live and have the story end on a much happier note.

In the subsequent novels and other writings following Jedi, Han and Leia marry and have three children; twins Jaina and Jacen, and one younger boy, Anakin.

Nearly fourteen years after its theatrical release, George Lucas revisited Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi and created the so-called Special Edition of this movie, featuring not only several modified CGI shots but also completely new shots. These were primarily centered on a new musical scene in Jabba's palace, a makeover for the Sarlaac pit creature, and scenes of celebration on various planets as the Empire falls. You can find a detailed comparison between the original version and the Special Edition with pictures here.

But in 2004, George Lucas did it again, creating another new version for the DVD release of the old Star Wars trilogy. Here, he modified some CGI shots but he also added some scenes that would link the old trilogy with the new one, including Hayden Christenson as Anakin's ghost and a flyover of Theed City on Naboo. Compositing errors on the Rancor scene which had gone uncorrected in the Special Edition were also addressed. A detailed comparison between the Special Edition and the DVD version can be found here.