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Credit: LucasfilmYou don’t fix what isn’t broken – unless you’re George Lucas.
In the decades since Lucas released Star Wars: A New Hope (1977), he’s earned a reputation for meddling with his own masterpiece. The original trilogy has undergone multiple edits over the years, which haven’t exactly gone down well with Star Wars fans.
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From Luke Skywalker to Anakin Skywalker to Rey (Skywalker? Palpatine?), every Star Wars adventure can currently be found on Disney+. However, fans have noticed plenty of differences between the versions available on the streaming service and those initially released in theaters.
Changes to Star Wars on Disney+
With 11 movies (and what seems like an endless stream of TV shows), there’s plenty of Star Wars content on Disney+. For those who initially saw the original trilogy, prequel trilogy, or sequel trilogy in theaters, some of the changes between the theatrical cuts and streaming versions of the films are glaringly obvious, while some are hard to spot, even for diehard fans.
Greedo Shoots First
Does Greedo shoot first? Does Han? Does it matter? It’s a debate as old as time in the Star Wars fandom – and one we can pin on George Lucas, not Disney itself.
The argument stems from edits to a scene in Episode IV, A New Hope (although it was originally just known as Star Wars). This showed Han Solo (Harrison Ford) conversing with a criminal named Greedo (Larry Ward) in Mos Eisley Cantina. Greedo says that he’s been “looking forward” to killing Han for a long time, to which the latter replies, “Yes, I’ll bet you have.”
All the while, Han is angling his blaster under the table to shoot Greedo. He pulls the trigger and Greedo slumps over the table, dead.
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At least, that’s how it used to go. In the 1990s, Lucas had the scene edited so Greedo shoots first and misses, causing Han to return fire and kill Greedo.
The intention was to most likely make Han seem more heroic, less cold-blooded killer, but fans didn’t see it that way. The “Han shot first” movement insists that Han is the kind of person to make the first move, regardless of the consequences.
Fans also believe it negatively impacts his character arc. If he was already a hero, where’s the character development when he makes the right choice in the film’s final act? As Variety so wisely put it, “Fans lost their minds. It was an affront, the neutering of a badass.”
Lucas has since explained why he changed the scene. “The controversy over who shot first, Greedo or Han Solo, in Episode IV, what I did was try to clean up the confusion, but obviously it upset people because they wanted Solo to be a cold-blooded killer, but he actually isn’t,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2012.
“It had been done in all close-ups and it was confusing about who did what to whom. I put a little wider shot in there that made it clear that Greedo is the one who shot first, but everyone wanted to think that Han shot first, because they wanted to think that he actually just gunned him down.”
Whatever the reason, the scene’s been tampered with numerous times over the years. Disney went with the fourth version from Lucasfilm – in which Greedo not only shoots first but shouts the alien expletive “ma klounkee” (or, as some fans call it, “mcclunky”) – when it uploaded the film to Disney+. Han’s return fire comes slightly faster this time around, which at least suggests that he was preparing to shoot ASAP anyway. More family-friendly, yes, but slightly less badass for Han Solo.
Yoda’s Makeover
Anyone can notice that Yoda looks different in each Star Wars trilogy. While the small, green alien is voiced by Frank Oz in the original trilogy, prequels, and sequels, he got a facelift in the prequels, where he was mostly depicted in CGI.
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The exception was initially Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999), where Frank Oz returned as his puppeteer. Years later, Lucas made the decision to replace the puppet (which admittedly wasn’t of the same standard as the OG films) with CGI to match Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002) and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005).
CGI Yoda proved unpopular with fans. Even Ewan McGregor – Obi-Wan Kenobi himself – admitted that he preferred the puppet. “The first film I did, I was lucky to do my scenes with the Yoda puppet,” he told The Mandalorian‘s Pedro Pascal in an interview for Variety. “It was extraordinary, because I acted with him. I couldn’t believe I was acting with Yoda. There’s so many people operating him, and the stage is lifted up so they’re underneath the floor and we were literally walking next to each other — and he’s alive.”
Once Yoda became CGI, he was less enthusiastic. “They replaced him for our second film and our third film with the digital version of him, and it’s not nearly as endearing,” he said. “Also, we know Yoda as a puppet. We know him from the original movies as a puppet. So when it was suddenly computer generated, it didn’t feel like Yoda to me anymore.”
To begin with, Yoda’s makeover was only visible in the 2011 Blu-ray release. However, CGI Yoda has now been adopted by all subsequent releases of the film – including that on Disney+.
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Fortunately, we’ve since seen the return of puppet Yoda (by far the superior Yoda) in Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi (2017). Once again puppeteered and voiced by Frank Oz, this saw the spirit of Master Yoda manifest to encourage the retired Jedi master Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) to learn from his failure.
Classic Fox Fanfare
Sure, the Fox fanfare isn’t technically in the Star Wars films, but it’s still an integral part of the classic viewing experience. Back before The Walt Disney Company purchased Lucasfilm in 2012, the classic 20th Century Fox fanfare could be heard right before the “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” crawl.
Originally composed by Alfred Newman in 1933, the tune was so beloved by both George Lucas and John Williams that the latter purposely composed the Main Title to A New Hope in the same key (B♭ major).
However, when Disney first digitally released the films in 2015, the fanfare was scrapped from Episode V and Episode VI. While A New Hope retained its iconic opening due to Fox’s permanent distribution deal, its successors went straight into the Star Wars theme sans fanfare.
That’s why fans were delighted when it was re-added before the prequels and original trilogy for Disney+ and the Ultra HD Blu-ray re-release. This came two years after Disney purchased 21st Century Fox, which shifted 20th Century Studios under the Walt Disney Company umbrella. While Disney subsequently removed the “A News Corporation Company” byline, the 20th Century Fox logo remained intact.
Notably, the fanfare doesn’t play in front of The Force Awakens (2015), The Last Jedi, or Rise of Skywalker (2019). The sequels, as well as Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) and Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), were all distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures after the Lucasfilm buyout, meaning they go straight into the Lucasfilm logo and opening crawl.
Remastered Quality
Fans generally have a complicated relationship with remastered footage. Done well, it can enhance the viewing experience – making old footage clearer and more detailed. Done badly, and it can go the way of Cinderella (1950), where the remastering infamously destroyed decade-old line work.
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The original Star Wars trilogy has been remastered multiple times over the years. Disney carried out yet another remastering for its 4K release, which noticeably increased the footage’s contrast, quality, and color.
One of the biggest differences is the latter. Over the years, the original trilogy had accumulated some issues with coloring. This was most noticeable with lightsabers, which looked off and sometimes entirely colorless. Some solid color correction resolved this issue for the 4K release.
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Change is controversial in the Star Wars fandom – by which we mean it tends to cause an internet ruckus. Fortunately, this remastering has been positively received. Some have even called for Disney to remaster the Star Wars Holiday Special (1978). However, considering its place in the franchise’s legacy, this is one Star Wars change we can’t see happening anytime soon.
Will We Ever See the Original Star Wars Universe?
To be blunt, no. At least, not right now. While the 4K remasterings of the original and prequel trilogies on Disney+ are, well, masterful, they’re not able to recapture the magic of the original theatrical versions.
Back in the 1990s, Lucasfilm started tampering with the original three films in what was essentially a technical test run before they started work on the prequels. As Lucas explained to Cinefex in 1999, “I wanted to see how much they would cost and what the processes would be, because to do the new films I had to take those and times them by a hundred. So yes, the special editions were a means of researching and testing what I was going to try to do on [The Phantom Menace].”
Some of these edits are infamous, such as the aforementioned Greedo changes and adding Jabba the Hutt and Boba Fett into A New Hope. Others are extremely subtle, such as updated special effects, new shots, and updated sounds (the best known being the “NO!” exclaimed by Darth Vader before he disposes of Emperor Palpatine).
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Lucas has always insisted that these changes are representative of his original vision, which means these versions of the series, not their theatrical predecessors, are the finished product. He also said that restoring the original cut would be extremely expensive (although screenings have been arranged in the past, such as by the British Film Institute).
Now that Lucasfilm is in Disney’s hands, the funding wouldn’t necessarily be a problem. Considering the devotion Star Wars fans have shown to the theatrical cuts, it’s safe to say that the reward would be worth the effort. With Disney slowing down its theatrical Star Wars output in recent years, retreating to the original trilogy would be an interesting move. Until that day comes, however, we’ll have to make do with Disney+.
What’s your least favorite change made to the original Star Wars films over the years? Let us know in the comments!