20 Little Known Star Wars Facts
2. Opening and Closing Scenes
It is not unusual for films to go through rapid rewriting during production, and many plots have turned out very differently from the way they were originally written.
In other cases, small parts are cut out simply because of their length. In this way, many “local color” fragments contributing to the atmosphere, beauty or emotion of films are lost.
DVD has brought director’s cuts, uncut versions and outtake discs. These have allowed viewers to see much of this material, but previously unreleased footage from old favorites still appears occasionally. This is particularly true of films made before DVD, since missing footage may be lying in a drawer somewhere, never released.
Great works such as “Star Wars” are now starting to benefit from these possibilities.
Lucas filmed a five-minute opening for “A New Hope” featuring Luke on Tatooine, but it was cut from the film. It can occasionally be found online.
There are rumors of a closing sequence to Return of the Jedi showing Leia and Han getting married, but no one’s found that yet.
