FAQ for
Star Wars (1977)

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags are used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

When the film was originally released in 1977, it was simply referred to as Star Wars, though George Lucas had intended to put Episode IV: A New Hope in the opening crawl. However, 20th Century Fox didn't want Lucas to do so because they thought it would confuse audiences, since there were never any other Star Wars films before it.

After the commercial success of the original Star Wars, Lucas was able to create the multi-film epic he originally envisioned. The Empire Strikes Back was released in 1980 and bore the full title of Star Wars, Episode V, The Empire Strikes Back in the title crawl, although it was referred to only as The Empire Strikes Back as the title of its commercial release.

The original "Star Wars" was re-released in 1981 with a new title: "Star Wars, Episode IV, A New Hope" in the title crawl.

All subsequent Star Wars releases have followed this new naming structure, although "Star Wars" often refers specifically to the 1977 film.

Officially, those prints do not exist and many believe that the "Biggs Scenes" being in some prints of the 1977 release is a Star Wars Urban Legend. They were supposedly never part of ANY release of the film, having been edited out of the film long before the special effects, sound, and musical score were completed, and long before the first test screening. Though many fans claim to have seen them (as children, or on televised versions), they were never officially available until the CD-ROM "Behind the Magic" was released in the mid Nineties.

Some photos from those scenes did, however, appear in books, such as "The Story of Star Wars", and the Marvel comic book version.

Lucas has said that these scenes were only added after he showed the script to friends, who told him that he waited too long (20 minutes almost) to introduce the main character of Luke Skywalker. Lucas felt it would be best to follow the droids until their story connected with Luke, but he gave in to his friends' criticisms and added these new scenes. Soon after assembling a cut of the film, he realized these new scenes slowed down the pace of the opening section, so he edited them back out again. Also, one member of a private test screening upset Lucas by joking that these scenes made it look like "American Graffiti in Space," and these comparisons were something he was desperate to avoid.

However, it was common in that era to release special prints for the drive-in theater market because the standard prints wouldn't screen properly due to the different lighting conditions. It's possible that the drive-in release of Star Wars--perhaps unintentionally--contained the "Biggs scenes." If so, it would explain why only a small segment of the population recalls seeing them in 1977. There doesn't seem to be any way to definitely determine one way or the other short of a drive-in print from 1977 turning up in someone's garage.

It's never said that Obi-Wan doesn't remember the droids, he simply says "I don't seem to ever remember owning a droid", which is true (although he did seem to be assigned a specific astro droid, R4, for several years). Artoo's claims to the contrary are simply a trick, one of many tricks Artoo attempts to get Luke to hand him over.

Obi-Wan may indeed remember Artoo, but revealing that to Luke would bring about too many questions and subjects he wouldn't wish to discuss. In addition to this, many astro droids look the same and are painted the same, so there is no reason for Obi-Wan to even assume that this is actually R2-D2. In addition, Luke never identifies the droid by its number.

As for Threepio, Obi-Wan and he hardly share any screen time together in the prequels, and Obi-Wan knows that Threepio's memory has been erased anyway. Acknowledging him as an old ally would be pointless, and at any rate, as with R2-D2, we see this standard model of protocol droid appear in many other places; therefore Obi-Wan can easily be excused for not recognizing this specific droid.

At the time of making this movie, Alec Guinness would not have known his character was lying to Luke, nor would George Lucas, who almost certainly hadn't yet decided whether Vader was really Luke's father. The later decision, when making Episode III, to have Obi-Wan unaware of Anakin's impending parenthood was a neccessary plotline for that particular movie, meaning a potential tie-in to this movie would have to be sacrificed.

There are ways however, in the context of the story, to justify it. One could conclude that perhaps Anakin had one day spoken of having a child and wanting that child to follow in his footsteps, but given the strict Jedi Code, later revealed in the prequels, which forbade this, that would seem an unlikely desire/admission. Perhaps the best way to summarise what Obi-Wan really meant would be to say that Obi-Wan knew that Luke would be the only hope of destroying the Emperor, and he himself wanted Luke to one day have the weapon and become a Jedi. But by telling Luke this was his father's wish and not his own, he knew Luke would be more drawn to taking the weapon. Alternately, he might simply wish to keep the truth of Luke's parentage secret for the time being, preferring for Luke to have fond feelings toward his father, the man Obi-Wan knew before Anakin's fall to the dark side.

This back story is only hinted at in the films, though the Revenge of the Sith novelisation and the uncut screenplay make it clearer. After his death in The Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon Jinn gained the ability to live on and observe events from within the Force (which is why you can hear him crying out after the sand people are slaughtered in Attack of the Clones). Yoda is actually communicating with him as Obi-Wan returns with the dying Padme in Revenge of the Sith (Qui-Gon's voice was reportedly recorded but ultimately deleted). In this missing scene, Qui-Gon states that "The ability to defy oblivion can be achieved, but only for oneself. It was accomplished by a Shaman of the Whills. It is a state acquired through compassion, not greed;" hence, when Obi-Wan tells Vader that if struck down, he "will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine," he refers to the fact that he can achieve what Anakin gave up his good side in search of. During their exile periods on Dagobah and Tatooine respectively, Yoda and Obi-Wan communicate with Qui-Gon and learn the ability to be absorbed into the Force at the time of their deaths, living on as shadowy blue ghosts. It doesn't seem to be essential, however; both Anakin and Qui-Gon live on through the force without being absorbed, though arguably Qui-Gon's ghost never appears and Anakin's never speaks, so their influence could be weaker.

Perhaps Qui-Gon was only able to manifest his voice into the minds of fellow Jedis after his death. Appearing as a Jedi spirit may have required training during life which he had never received. But he was able to pass on this knowledge, so Yoda and Obi-Wan could have maximum benefit from it. Anakin/Darth Vader witnessed Obi-Wan disappearing upon death, which may have prompted him to seek out this ability for himself during the times he was meditating inside his regeneration hub (seen in The Empire Strikes Back). With Anakin being the most powerful Jedi, it is not unthinkable that he could master the ability himself, perhaps even communicated with Qui-Gon's spirit (although this is pure speculation). However, he could only ever use it after turning back to the Light Side of the Force. After Anakin's death, it took a while for him to be completely back to the Light Side, and perhaps his body disappeared during his cremation (or after). If this is also true for Qui-Gon, that means his ashy remains would have finally disappeared years after his death.

The scene with Greedo in the original shoot was much shorter and did not contain the dialogue revolving around Han's dumping of stolen goods meant for Jabba. When the decision was made to cut the Jabba scene out, owing to the time and funds needed to add the desired stop-motion creature, a new version of the Greedo scene was filmed, this time using a female performer in the costume, which added the needed exposition that would have otherwise been lost (during the interim, a method was found for articulating the snout of the Greedo mask by having the performer hold a clothespin in her mouth; one may notice that the shot wherein Greedo first confronts Han and forces him to sit does not feature the alien's mouth moving during its dialogue).

In the original 1976 shoot, Jabba was actually played by a short, rotund man (Declan Mulholland), with the intention of changing the character (either through stop-motion or more traditional animation) into an alien. When the Special Edition was being compiled in 1995, ILM artists realised that Han walks around Jabba when talking, and decided to fix this potential problem by making Han step on Jabba's tail. Harrison Ford was lifted digitally, resulting in a somewhat jarring motion. Another clue as to Jabba's original form is when Han says "Jabba, you're a wonderful human being." With Jabba now being an alien, the line becomes a wry joke on Han's behalf. Some of the original footage from this scene can be found in the television special From Star Wars To Jedi and the Star Wars: Special Edition VHS version.

When the decision was made to restore the Jabba scene, too many years had passed to have Harrison Ford record new lines; therefore, the scene appears as it was originally scripted, redundant dialogue and all.

Obi-Wan Kenobi allows Darth Vader to strike him down so he can guide Luke Skywalker as a spirit.

The Rebellion launches an assault on the Death Star using starfighters, with Luke as one of the lead attackers. Just as Darth Vader is about to shoot Luke down, Han Solo arrives in the Millennium Falcon. He damages Darth Vader's fighter, allowing Luke to destroy the Death Star.

At a huge ceremony, Princess Leia grants medals to Luke Skywalker & Han Solo, with Chewbacca, C-3P0 and R2-D2 in attendance.

The first lightsaber effects were created using wooden dowel rods wrapped in Scotchlite (a reflective white material used for lettering on road signs for night visibility) which were attached to the saber hilts. The hilts contained small motors which would spin the rod, which would reflect a front-projected light source, causing a shimmering effect. The activation and deactivation of the lightsabers were accomplished by simply stopping the camera with the actor (usually) standing still and attaching or removing the rod before restarting the camera, resulting in a slight jump in the image.

This approach was not entirely successful for a number of reasons. It was hoped that the reflective surface would cast ambient light on the saber's immediate surroundings, but this was rarely if ever noticeable. The brightness of the saber could vary drastically depending upon its angle relative to the front-projected light, and additionally, the wooden blades were very fragile and tended to break during the dueling scenes. A few of these in-camera effects found their way into the first teaser trailer for Star Wars.

The in-camera approach not culminating in satisfactory results, ILM added an animated glow to the blades in post-production, now differentiating the color of the individual sabers, which had all previously been white. For unknown reasons, two separate shots (one of Obi-wan's saber and one of Vader's) did not have this effect applied, and the shots appeared in the finished film with the characters holding plain white sticks; this discrepancy was finally addressed in the DVD release of the film.

Two shots appearing in the film differed from this approach. The first scene of Luke training aboard the Millennium Falcon featured a completely animated blade. Without a practical blade attached to the hilt for reference, the saber beam appears slightly unsteady in this shot. The shot in which Obi-wan activates his saber as he prepares to confront Vader, the only instance in the original film wherein the saber is seen to slowly extend from the hilt as it would in all subsequent films, was achieved by attaching a glass rod to the hilt, initially pointed directly at the camera. Alec Guiness turned his hand slightly in the course of the shot, causing reflected light to travel along the length of the tube and give the effect of of an extruding blade. Again, a rotoscoped glow was eventually added for a more dynamic visual effect.

All subsequent films in the series dispensed with the Scotchlite approach completely, and the sabers were equipped with sturdier metal rods for both dueling and as guides for the animated blades.