Lando and the Millennium Falcon were originally scripted to perish in the Death Star explosion. While this scene was removed, it is referenced when Han tells Leia he has a funny feeling he isn't going to see the Falcon again.
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Luke Skywalker: You told me Vader betrayed and murdered my father.
Obi-Wan Kenobi: Your father was seduced by the dark side of the force: he ceased to be Anakin Skywalker and became Darth Vader; when that happened, the good man who was your father was destroyed. So, what I told you was true...from a certain point of view.
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When C3PO and R2D2 are picked up in the sand, there is no sand falling off them. Obviously, C3PO's legs and R2D2 where just placed behind some sand (and not in it) or they used blue screen in this shot. See more...
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Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) - 31 trivia entries
Directed by Richard Marquand, starring Anthony Daniels, Billy Dee Williams, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Kenny Baker, Mark Hamill, Alec Guinness, David Prowse, Frank Oz, Ian McDiarmid, James Earl Jones, Peter Mayhew (add more)
Lando and the Millennium Falcon were originally scripted to perish in the Death Star explosion. While this scene was removed, it is referenced when Han tells Leia he has a funny feeling he isn't going to see the Falcon again.
When they were filming the scenes on Endor, Peter Mayhew was told to stay close to the set so no one would mistake him for Big Foot and attempt to shoot him.
When Oola the dancing girl (with those two things growing out of the back of her head) is trying to get away from Jabba, she briefly falls out of the top of her costume. It isn't as visible in the letterbox version, but quite visible in the regular version.
The Ewoks' language is a mixture of Tibetan, Nepalese and Mongol.
In the new box set of the three original films, they have changed the ending in RotJ to correspond better with the ending in Revenge of the Sith. When Luke sees his father as the Anakin Skywalker spirit, in the final scene at the celebration, it is young Hayden Christensen as Anakin's spirit instead of older Sebastian Shaw, who is the spirit in the original version.
The funeral pyre scene wasn't in the original script.
Sound designer Ben Burtt makes an uncredited cameo as the Imperial officer in the bunker who shouts "Freeze!" and is subsequently knocked into the generator room by a thrown satchel.
Notice when Luke is hiding in the shadows from Darth Vader his face is half shadowed, to represent the decision Luke has to make: one side is light, on the other, dark.
There was a rumour that the Lucas crew ran out of space ships in the final battle and threw a sneaker in and used it as a space ship. In the final battle, there is a space ship that looks exactly like the sole of the sneaker.
When filming ROTJ, Lucas didn't want anyone to find out that they were shooting the third Star Wars movie, because pandemonium could break out. So when someone asked the crew what they were filming, they said "Blue Harvest". All of the crew had shirts and hats that said Blue Harvest on them. The fictitious film's tagline was "Horror beyond imagination."
Most people today know what an Ewok is, despite the fact that the word is never actually spoken in the film.
When George Lucas first wrote Star Wars, he was going to have Wookies in Endor but he thought that the movie was going to be so unpopular the he would never release "Return Of The Jedi," so he put Chewbacca in "Star Wars" and the Ewoks in "Return of the Jedi."
The 2 four-note horn blasts (short-short-short-long, call-and-reply) used by the Ewoks to signal their attack to rescue Han and the rebels from the imperials on Endor is the same clarion call used by the Hebrews to signal their exit from Egypt in "The Ten Commandments".
Luke Skywalker has an AM/FM-cassette deck mounted in the cockpit of his X-Wing fighter. It can be seen as he's flying away from Tatooine after destroying Jabba's barge, in the shot just before he says "That's right, Artoo, we're going to the Dagobah system."
The scene where Vader lifts the Emperor and throws him down the shaft, watch it frame by frame and you can see X-Rays of Darth Vader.
This film and the first film (New Hope) were released on the same day, exactly six years apart.
The alien language spoken by Lando's co-pilot on the Falcon contains elements of Kenyan, and one line literally translates as, "A thousand herds of elephants are standing on my foot."
Ken Ralston, the man who was pretty much in charge of the space battle, put a number of interesting objects in the background. He sometimes used a wad of gum as a far-away shot of a Mon Cal star cruiser, and there is also a sneaker and a yogurt cup floating around.
On Endor when Leia is shot by a Stormtrooper she falls over and Han turns around and grabs her left breast. Carrie Fisher smiles slightly before the shot changes.
When the A-Wing is going to hit the Death Star, it's visibly an A-Wing but when it hits it they used a model car - you can see the wheels and the axle.
Harrison Ford wanted Han Solo to have a heroic death as he insisted in the first film, but George Lucas didn't agree.
Anakin Skywalker's first name is first mentioned in this film. His name comes from a friend of George Lucas, British film director Ken Annakin.
This was the first Star Wars film to make use of the THX sound system. Ironically, it is also the only Star Wars film that does not contain a reference to THX-1138.
There is a shot of a hangar filled with TIE Fighters, and a brigade of Stormtroopers. One of them has a smiley face on his white helmet.
At the shield generator bunker (during the ambush), an Imperial Naval Trooper shouts "Freeze!" and when Han throws the charges at him the trooper falls backwards over the railing, and the famous "Wilhelm" scream is heard.
Harrison Ford actually wanted Han Solo killed in this movie. He said, 'He has no mama, no papa, no story. Let's kill him off and put some weight into this thing.' The higher powers that be thought otherwise.
George Lucas included the scene in which Yoda confirms Darth Vader is Luke's father because, after a discussion with a children's psychologist, he didn't want younger viewers to dismiss Vader's claim as a lie.
When the Death Star explodes, there is a view from the forest moon of Endor. Many bits of debris fly around. One of them, at the bottom right, is doll-shaped.
Watch Jabba's mouth when he speaks, and you'll notice it matches the subtitled English 'translation'. The puppeteer didn't know what 'language' would be used for Jabba, so during the take, he would say and mouth Jabba's lines as they were written in the script: in plain English
During the Endor shooting, the Ewok actors stormed off the set. One of the crew members raced off to get them back, and it turned out to be a hoax. The actors came back laughing with t-shirts that read "Revenge of the Ewoks."
A couple of German Star Wars fans have - by use of acting, Star Wars props and computer graphics - filmed a story about how the shuttle Tydirium the rebels use to get to Endor was captured in the first place. The story can be found under the title "Tydirium - The True Story".
You may also like: Star Wars | Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back | Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith | Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace | Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
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