Revenge of Jedi

...and Speaking of Star Wars

Did Return of the Jedi kind of leave a bad taste in your mouth, even after all these years? Did you ever think, man, Empire was SOOO great, how come Jedi just, well - wasn't?

Perhaps you would've preferred the original version of the story, as revealed by Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back producer Gary Kurtz in a 2005 interview.

"The one story thread that got totally tossed out the window, which was really pretty important I think, was the one of Vader trying to convince Luke to join him to overthrow the Emperor. That together they had enough power that they could do that, and it wasn't him saying I want to take over the world and be the evil leader, it was that transition.

It was Vader saying, "I'm looking again at what I've done and where my life has gone and who I've served and, very much in the Samurai tradition, and saying if I can join forces with my son, who is just as strong as I am, that maybe we can make some amends."

So there was all of that going on in Jedi as well, that was supposed to go on. So the story was quite a bit more poignant and the ending was the coronation of Leia as the queen of what was left of her people, to take over the royal symbol. That meant she was then isolated from all of the rest and Luke went off then by himself. It was basically a kind of bittersweet ending.

She's not his sister that dropped in to wrap up everything neatly. His sister was someone else way over on the other side of the galaxy and she wasn't going to show up until the next episode."

No last minute change of heart from Vader, no creepy retro incest between Luke and Leia, and a non-Ewok village with everyone dancing and singing and ghosts appearing to tell you that everything's okay-now ending? And a nod that there would be a "NEXT EPISODE"...

And on top of that, the Ewoks were supposed to be Wookies, and David Lynch was originally tapped to direct.

Yeah, we were totally ripped off.