I’m meeting Ian McDiarmid in July and he’s only $125 which I think is relatively decent. I’m actually going to take the chance and get his autograph and a photo opp so it’ll be $250 but it’s not a chance I’ll have often so why not.

Back in the 90s, Carrie Fisher was $60. Definitely get 'em while you can.

Anthony Daniels is actually going to be there too. Not sure if I’ll meet him. I am thinking of getting Dee Bradley Baker who voiced the Clones in The Clone Wars and The Bad Batch.

For TFA, it's heavily implied that Kylo inadvertently gives Rey knowledge of the Force and some of its tricks when he attempts to mind read her. It's only after this point that she's consciously using things like the Jedi Mind Trick and the Force Pull. And then in RoTS, it starts off with her training, and her failed attempts to contact those beyond the veil. We know she has the Ancient Jedi texts, and has been training with Leia, who trained with Luke.

And yes, those are somewhat narrative shortcuts, but the audience already knows about the Force and all its powers, and I don't think the audience in general wants long drawn-out training sequences in their adventure movies. Keep in mind that Lucas opted to completely skip over Anakin's training in the prequels.

Also, who's to say that Luke is even that good of a Force user? He's the first we follow for a significant time, but his importance ends up having more to do with his family connection with the villain than his raw abilities. Why can't someone learn faster, and be better at it that him? That's even a plot point in TLJ, where Luke ends up somewhat scared of Rey's abilities. This argument just seems like Luke fanboys being upset that their idolized character isn't objectively The Best Jedi anymore, although one could argue that from what we see in the prequel, Luke in the OT is kinda lame by comparison. It's arguably more interesting to see progressively more powerful Force users.

As for the ending of TRoS, that film was just overall a misfire, and the ending doubly so, but it could be argued that Rey didn't defeat Palpatine on her own. That was sort of the whole point of the scene and her saying she's "all of the Jedi," in that she tapped into the power of all other Jedi from the past, via a skill she was training with Leia on, possibly taken from the Ancient Jedi Texts. Luke, in contrast, in RoTJ went into that final confrontation with very little in training, just incomplete training with Yoda, and no knowledge from the Ancient Jedi Texts. Not to mention that Luke's goal wasn't to necessarily defeat the Emperor, but to save his friends and potentially save his father.

Return of the Jedi is coming back to theaters for its 40th anniversary on April 28th.



I never saw it in theaters. In 1983 I was only 10 and I saw it for the first time on VHS sometime in late 83 or 84. Can’t recall. I might consider going to see it this time.

Return of the Jedi was not the first movie I saw in theaters, but it's the first movie I remember seeing in theaters. I also owned the original release VHS from 85 or 86 (whenever it came out) and watched it a hundred times as a kid. Every moment is burned into my brain. That said, it mostly sucks and I don't think I'd pay to see it in a theater again. I probably would if it were the original version, but we all know it won't be.

I will stay home and watch my copy of the theatrical cut that I have on BD for the 40th.

My dad was out of state during the summer that Return Of The Jedi came out for work and I swear my mom took my brother and I to see it sixty times to get us out of the house.

If my local theater gets it I’ll go to the 40th Anniversary release of Return of the Jedi.

If my closest theater gets it I'll go. When I saw it in theaters in 1997 for the special editions I loved it for the Space battles on the big screen.

I wonder how much for him and his baby momma now that they're both in the Star Wars universe.

My friend took the day off from high school (freshman) to stand in line for tickets opening day. Might be fun - or lame-o - to do it again.

Rey and Ben are both clearly "gifted" in the Force. Also, everyone ignores that Ben was not fully trained either. Luke never finished his training, Snoke says he needs to complete Ben's training at the end of TLJ, but none of that happens or is even alluded to in TLJ. Instead, Ben gets his wounds mended and a tongue lashing from Snoke. However, as you mentioned, Luke is clearly disturbed and intrigued by Rey (like when Rey is doing solo training with a light sabre and when Rey clearly recognizes the hollow where the Jedi texts are kept). Frankly, Rey was one of the things the ST got right, the Palpatine nonsense notwithstanding.

ROTJ was always my favorite of the OT and despite the fact that I'll likely have to sit through Jedi Rocks, I can't see myself missing an opportunity to see this on the big screen. Maybe I can even get my wife and kid to go this time (took a friend to the recent Rogue One re-release).

Here's where Disney could have some fun with the fans and make some scratch doing it. Theatrical only releases of the OOT.

Anyone know what version of ROTJ it's going to be? What was the Empire one in 2020?

99.9% sure it's the versions on Disney+.

I can't find anything explicitly stating it, but the ESB re-release looks to have been the same version as on the UHD Blu-ray and Disney+. If it had been the original theatrical cut, I think there would've been a lot of noise. Keep in mind that the ESB re-release in 2020 was one of the pandemic freebies studios were distributing to theaters to help prop them up, so it makes sense Disney/Lucasfilm just pulled an existing 4K master off the shelf to send out.

I highly doubt that ROTJ will be anything other than Lucas's "Final Cut" that was released on UHD. I suspect Disney is going to keep Lucas molified until he kicks the bucket, and the only real chance for a release of the original theatrical cuts is as an "extra" in some sort of set.

Disney and LucasFilm are far too complacent with the franchise to surprise us with the original version of RotJ. At this point, laziness abounds with everyone who has anything to do with Star Wars.

I didn't see the Special Edition release of Jedi in '97 (good call, I guess), so I would go see the 40th. I agree it's the lesser of the first three, but I think it has two of the best sequences in the trilogy; the whole Jabba's palace opening, the final battle between Luke and Vader, which I consider the greatest scene in the entire series.

I saw Empire during it's COVID release, and marvel how it's changes don't detract from the movie. I've only watched the pre-special editions since the early 2000s, so I've never had to hear Vader shout "Nooo!" at the end of Jedi. Sucks that I'll have to now.

I don't think it's complacency, so much as the studio recognizing the original cuts would look jarring to most of the audience now, as a lot of the effects (like the Monty Python drawing of the Emperor falling down the shaft and cartoonish light that flashes out of it) brands the movie as being from another era. They want to keep the movies looking as "timeless" as they can.

I hope so. If they ever put them out, they'll be presented like historical artefacts.

I don't know all the major details of the changes of Return of the Jedi nor do I really care to look them all up. The only one that I am aware of that isn't really that major IMO was Sebastian Shaw being swapped out for Hayden Christensen as the force ghost in the final celebration scene.

Ewan McGregor made a brief appearance to close out Day 3 of SW celebration live stream. The show ran 7+ hours.

He's got a goofy mustache because he's filming a TV series called A Gentleman in Moscow.

This ruins the entire film for me. Anything that links them to the Prequels is bad. The other changes added to the 468th release by Lucas are just as bad, IMO. Vader yelling out "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" during the Emperor torturing Luke scene ruins my favorite scene in the history of film. Thank god for fan restorations.

That change has always bothered me. I get that Lucas' reasoning is that Anakin reverted to his form before his turn to the dark side. However, this means that Jedi who stay on the path of the light spend all of eternity as decrepit old farts, but a genocidal child-murderer gets to spend the afterlife with youthful vigor. Seriously, just another reason in favor of turning to the dark.

At this point as much as I don’t prefer the special editions I’ve come to more or less accept them. Unless you’re wanting to buy bootlegs or watch old media it’s what it is at this point and isn’t likely to change.