With Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker bringing the epic story of the galaxy's most prominent family to an end, let's travel back in time to 1977 with the film that started it all: Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. George Lucas' epic space opera introduced audiences to Luke, Han and Leia for the first time as they battled Darth Vader and attempted to stop the Galactic Empire from wreaking havoc across the galaxy with the planet-destroying Death Star. To this day, Episode IV is still looked upon as one of, if not the, best installments in the Skywalker Saga. But while many longtime fans may view the film as perfect, the man behind the movie thinks otherwise.
Never satisfied, Lucas has ordered many re-issues and re-releases over the years, updating the film with upgraded CGI, additional scenes and even extra dialogue. Some changes stick out more than others and have even lead to contentious debates among the fandom. Let's take a look at the various special editions of A New Hope and see what major changes Lucas made over the years.
Which Episode Are We On?
The iconic title crawl plays at the beginning of almost every Star Wars movie. When the text starts, the episode number is displayed before a brief prologue summary starts scrolling. However, this wasn't the case during the original 1977 release. Since the sequels and prequels weren't certain yet, the movie wasn't referred to as an episode. As such, the original title crawl begins scrolling without being referred to as "Episode IV."
The episodic title was added in the 1981 re-release of A New Hope, along with the entire opening crawl receiving some minor grammar changes.
Shoot First, Ask Questions Later
The most infamous scene change in Star Wars history is none other than Han Solo's confrontation with Greedo in Chalmun's Space Cantina. With Greedo aiming a blaster at Han, he says, "I've been looking forward to this moment for a long time." Han replies, "Yes, I bet you have." And this is where things get complicated.
In the original film, Han shoots Greedo before he had a chance at firing back. This all changed in the 1997 Special Edition release of the film. In this version, Greedo shoots first, but Han dodges the shot and fires back at Greedo. The film even digitally shifts Han's head to the right to make it appear like he is dodging a shot that wasn't originally there. The scene was changed twice more in the future: the 2004 Star Wars Trilogy DVD version edits the shot to make them both shoot at the same time (though Greedo technically still shoots first), and the 2011 Blu-Ray release cuts a few frames out to make the scene go quicker. All these changes have caused an uproar in the Star Wars fandom, with many believing it undermines Han's character while also being completely unnecessary.
The scene was changed yet again when the film became available on Disney+. Right before getting shot, Greedo utters the phrase "Maclunkey." Why was this added? Well, the actor who played the scummy Greedo doesn't even know.
Call Of The Wild
One of the stranger changes in the re-releases was the scream used to scare away a group of Tusken Raiders, which is meant to sound like a Krayt Dragon. In the 2004 trilogy DVD, the scream is in a much higher pitch but still sounds relatively the same. But in the 2011 Blu-ray, the scream's pitch is even higher, almost like a human trying to imitate the sound of a Krayt Dragon and failing miserably.
Unlike the cantina scene, this change doesn't affect the plot of A New Hope whatsoever, making the edit that much more bizarre.
Monsters Unleashed
The original Star Wars was released in the 1970s, so the special effects couldn't handle giant space creatures as well as the newer entries in the series. Since we all know how much George Lucas loves CGI monsters, many additional scenes were added to include new monsters. There are two prominent examples of this that both first appeared in the 1997 Special Edition.
The first moment happens when Luke, Obi-Wan and the droids travel to Mos Eisley. Additional shots of the city were added, giving the spaceport a bigger look and including many more dinosaur-like creatures and droids flying around. This all takes place right before the group enters the cantina. Later releases, notably the 2011 Blu-Ray, continued to update the visuals.
The second is Jabba the Hut, who was originally supposed to make his debut in this movie when confronting Han at the Millennium Falcon. Scenes were shot using an Irish actor as a stand-in for Jabba, with the intention of having a stop-motion creature added in his place during post-production. Due to constraints at the time, the scene was cut. The 1997 edition added the scene in with a fully CGI Jabba talking to Han, with the effects being touched up in later releases. The most interesting part about this scene is that Han walks behind Jabba during their conversation and accidentally steps on his tail. Han's body had to be digitally raised up to make it appear like he is stepping on an actual tail.
There are other minor examples of this too: an extended scene was added showing stormtroopers searching for the droids on Tatooine, with one riding a Dewback. Certain aliens within the Cantina were also added or changed in some way.
Reunited With Old Friends
Shortly before the Battle of Yavin, Luke has a conversation with his childhood friend Biggs Darklighter. It's a nice scene where the two reconnect after both of their shared adventures and reminisce about the old times. Unfortunately, the scene was removed in the theatrical release.
In fact, almost all of Biggs' scenes were removed from the original cut, where he was intended to play a more prominent role in Luke's character development. The scenes at Yavin, as well as some other scenes on Tatooine, were restored in the 1997 Special Edition, giving more context to Luke's strong reaction to Biggs' death at the Battle of Yavin.
Shot For Shot
There are some more subtle changes to the overall look of the film that may go unnoticed. Certain establishing shots, like when R2-D2 and C-3PO first arrive on Tatooine, are given updated looks. An example of this is when R2-D2 is hiding from the Tusken Raiders before Obi-Wan shows up. The 2011 Blu-Ray features CGI rocks added in to make R2's hiding spot smaller. In addition, new digital shots of various ships are also added, as well as numerous small dialogue changes that are too long to list here.
Particle effects from explosions look cleaner and sound effects from blasters and lightsabers also get updated. Speaking of lightsabers, the coloration of each of the re-releases causes some lightsabers to change colors. When Luke trains on the Millennium Falcon, the 2004 DVD version gives his lightsaber a green tint. The 2011 version changes it back to blue.