SW Insider's great issue on RETURN OF THE JEDI, and what could have been!

[Tycho]

The Star Wars Insider on Episode 6 is just awesome!

In the years I've subcribed, this magazine keeps impressing me just when I think they've done all they can!

But let's get back to Endor!

What cool stuff in the article about changes, lost scenes, different takes, etc.

1) Luke hanging from the upper grates in the pit, and then dropping off into a kick in the Rancor's eye would have been awesome!

They have the footage, they can still add this in if they redo the Rancor in CGI, which I wouldn't mind.

2) Vader choking out Royal Guards that try to block his way to Palpatine when he's told to remain on the command ship is just awesome! At least we'd get to see the guards do something, but they're nothing next to a rebellious Sith Lord!

3) Had Abbadon: the old idea for the captial of the Empire and Palpatine's lair being deep in the planet's molten lava core. I think this strongly points to Anakin finding Palpatine there (on Coruscant, in it's molten lava core, and fighting Obi-Wan Kenobi there). This has been a concept since probably 1980 or earlier!

4) Wedge flying a TIE Fighter to cover the Tyderium as it tricked it's way past Piett and the shield? It could have been cool, but you had to figure out a way to then get him back to be Red Leader, and it just doesn't work. I like Wedge where he's at!

5) Han trying to open the shield doors by chaining them to Chewie's AT-ST and instead, ripping the legs off the AT-ST?! That would have been hilarious!!! - and so "Solo" of him. I guess when that doesn't work, he tries calling them on the commlink like he does in the final film.

6) Moff Jerjerrod ordering the Death Star II to fire on Endor, destroying the planet, but scuttling both the Rebel Fleet with the Empire's in his final selfish attempt to defeat Admiral Ackbar! That would have been cool! (of course Jerjerrod blows himself up like Tarkin did, because Calrissian and Antilles had already laid the golden eggs in the Death Star's reactor core!)

7) Luke throwing his lightsaber away, only for Vader to get it, have both lightsabers when he taunts Luke about his sister, and then having Luke Force-rip his saber back from Vader while he shouts "NO!" defiantly and ignites it for his attack. So even his Force ability is shown to be getting more powerful than his father's! That'd been so cool!

8) Having more shots of Leia modeling in her slave bikini! I wouldn't have minded a half-hour of this extra footage being left in the film!

9) The Insider's report on why Return of the Jedi is cool including Admiral Piett's, Oola's, Lando's, Wedge's, and Ian McDiarmid's playing the part of Palpatine (then and now) as being the great contributions that they were! The supporting cast of heroes and villains was so good!

10) Interviews with all the Ewoks! And finally the respect they deserve is paid to them! Yub-nub!

11) The notation that The Battle of Endor is still about the largest space battle ever filmed! - especially with real models! And it still rocks!

I still want them to just add footage of the B-wings fighting. That's all I ask. I wished Hobbie and Janson were still young enough to be in the picture in that final battle. A tribute to Rogue Squadron, but oh well.

12) Seeing General Madine fight would have been cool, too - to see another Corellian in action, as well as make him half-as-cool as General Riekeen. Dadonna and Riekeen should both have returned for Jedi anyway. With them, plus Madine, and Ackbar in command with Antilles and Calrissian leading the fighters, it really would have felt like a Rebel Alliance. (Riekeen was Alderaanian and Dodanna was Coruscanti I think).

Anyway, Return of the Jedi is an under-appreciated movie in the Star Wars pantheon, and I truly remember now how much I thought it rocked!

Luke Skywalker became a Jedi Knight in that movie! What is cooler than that?

[2-1B]

Is this in a new issue?
I got a letter saying my subscription is up, but I assumed I still had time to get my payment in.

Do you have the ROTJ storybook?
I do, and it has a pic of Luke hanging from the grating.

[Tycho]

I had the storybook when I was a kid. I remember. The new Insider cited that source for the picture. The scene was finished with Mark Hamill, but they couldn't finish the effect with the stunt double and the creature.

Indeed it would have been cool.

[Rogue II]

Some of those cut scenes are discussed here . I think it shows some pics of the Jabba's palace scenes, Palpatine's throne room, Vader vs. the Guards, and Madine's cut footage. It also describes the cut sandstorm scene.

Wow, Wedge was to escort the shuttle? I don't understand how...TIEs don't have hyperspace.

I'm going to have to pick up this issue.

[TheDarthVader]

Too cool! I, too, got a letter stating that my subscription was up. I hope they still mail me this issue!

[JEDIpartner]

I just got mine yesterday. I'm still poring over all of the articles. That 100 JEDI secrets article was really good... nice poster, too! I framed the last poster they sent (the one of the galaxy with all the planet's positions) and put it above my display area. I love it!

[Anakin2121]

Originally posted by Tycho
5) Han trying to open the shield doors by chaining them to Chewie's AT-ST and instead, ripping the legs off the AT-ST?! That would have been hilarious!!! - and so "Solo" of him. I guess when that doesn't work, he tries calling them on the commlink like he does in the final film.

I never understood that scene. It wasn't Han inside of the AT-ST, because the doors opened a second later and Han was already there, pistol drawn, in his normal clothes. Was it one of the Rebel soldiers in disguise, or did they revive one of the AT-ST drivers that the Ewoks knocked out, put a gun to his head, and make him say what he said?

[JediTricks]

Originally posted by Anakin2121
I never understood that scene. It wasn't Han inside of the AT-ST, because the doors opened a second later and Han was already there, pistol drawn, in his normal clothes. Was it one of the Rebel soldiers in disguise, or did they revive one of the AT-ST drivers that the Ewoks knocked out, put a gun to his head, and make him say what he said?

A lot of people have this misconception about that scene. It is Han in the AT-ST, the set-up and editing of the bunker scenes don't show that the control room we see receive Han's message isn't right inside that bunker, the bunker doors only lead to a corridor which ultimately ends up under the shield generator control room which is a ways off. In the script, here's what it says about the AT-ST pilot's line:

HAN/PILOT (VO)
It's over, Commander. The Rebels have been routed. They're fleeing into the woods. We need reinforcements to continue the pursuit.

Also, why would Han set those charges for such a close time that everybody has to flee if he was right next to the doors? It's because he set up the charges in the building under the generator dish.

[Anakin2121]

Thanks! That actually makes a lot more sense now!!

Something else I always wondered about the OT -- who was it that shot C-3PO on Bespin? The shooter had a very unique voice, yet when 3PO is revived, he's like, "Stormtroopers? Here?"

[scruffziller]

It was Stormtroopers