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On September 21, at long last, the original Star Wars Trilogy is finally coming to DVD. The usual DVD improvements are a given: Lightsabers will blaze in digitally-remastered glory, and TIE fighters will scream past in 5.1 Surround EX.
But in addition to the usual fare, Lucas and Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) have actually created brand new versions of the three original movies, kicking off much murmuring in the Star Wars fan universe. Again.
Lucas started with the "Special Editions," the altered re-release from 1997, and picked up his tweaking where he left off. For your convenience, EntertainmentStuff has compiled a list of all the rumored new additions to the trilogy, as well as Lucasfilm's official announcements.
"Episode IV: A New Hope" Rumors
- Lucasfilm changed the scene with Han Solo and Greedo in the cantina again. Now they both shoot at the same time. (In the original 1977 version, Han shoots first. In the 1997 Special Edition, Greedo shoots first.)
- The Han and Jabba the Hutt "You're a wonderful human being" scene from the 1997 version is still in the movie, but ILM has reworked the computer-generated Jabba to make him more realistic.
- At the end of the same scene, when Han steps on Jabba's tail, ILM has fixed the "shakiness" you can see in the 1997 edition.
- The controls for the tractor beam now read in Aurebesh (the human language in Star Wars) instead of English.
- Darth Vader and Obi Wan Kenobi's duel in the Death Star shows off enhanced lightsabers. Fans have long noted that the lightsabers don't glow correctly when held at a certain angle, but Lucas did not adjust this scene in the 1997 release.
"Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back" Rumors
- In the original version of the film, ILM created the hologram of the emperor by compositing a shot of an old woman and a chimpanzee's eyes. As a result, the image doesn't look much like Ian McDiarmid, the actor that portrays the Emperor in "Return of the Jedi" and Senator Palpatine and the Emperor in the prequels. In the DVD edition, the image will be the holographic form of Ian McDiarmid.
- Lucasfilm modifies the dialogue in this scene between Vader and the Emperor to imply that the Emperor already knows Luke Skywalker is Vader's son.
- In this scene, you'll also hear the Emperor's theme music from John William's score of "Return of the Jedi."
"Episode VI: Return of the Jedi" Rumors
- In the original film, Princess Leia discusses remembering her mother before she died. In the DVD edition, Lucas has reportedly omitted or changed the dialogue to fit the story arc of the prequels.
- Hayden Christenson (the actor portraying young Vader) replaces Sebastian Shaw (the actor who portrayed elderly Vader) in the ghosts of the Force shot during the final celebration on Endor.
- Lucasfilm has added Naboo, a planet featured in the prequels, to the final planetary celebration montage at the end of the movie.
All of this stuff is only rumored, of course. What we do know for sure is that Lucasfilm made some changes to the films, and the original versions of the films will not be available on DVD. This is a major bone of contention for many fans of the original theatrical versions. Lucasfilm argues that these changes are only a means of realizing Lucas' original vision for the films.
Lucasfilm has released some official information on things that will definitely be in the DVDs. The next section sums up the facts.
