Revealing mistake: As Princess Leia is about to undergo interrogation by the droid in her cell, the needle bears the legend "Made In England".
Continuity mistake: When Luke first tries his father's lightsaber in Ben's house, it has a blue color but when he is practising on the Millennium falcon, it now has a white or sometimes light blue color. It has nothing to do with lighting because light sabers always have a bright color in the rest of the movie, even in the darkness.
Continuity mistake: Watch Luke's shadow when he walks toward his aunt to talk to her, and when he turns around. In the following shot, where he is walking toward the Jawa sandcrawler, his shadow is cast in another direction.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Vader chokes the imperial officer with the force, watch him before he gets choked. On his left (your right) of his blue and red button things, he has a pocket with what looks like two pens sticking out. But in a later shot, only one "pen" is sticking out. Later, it goes back to two again.
Continuity mistake: When Luke starts to lead C-3PO and R5-D4 to the garage, some of the droids in front of the sandcrawler repeatedly change position. For example, as Luke says, "And the red one, come on." R2-D2 is standing next to the boarding gantry, but in the previous and following shot, he was standing by the front treads.
Revealing mistake: On the Death Star, before Luke and Leia try to cross the pit, Luke shoots a panel to close the door. Firstly, he shoots beside it, and secondly, after it explodes, no electronic components are visible in it.
Continuity mistake: When everyone is getting in fighters for the final battle, they all have white helmets with blue insignias. However, they aren't wearing them when they're flying.
Continuity mistake: When Darth Vader is interrogating the captain of the Blockade Runner, the stormtrooper on the left behind them has his blaster at his waist but in the shot showing their legs, he has it at his chest. It's at his waist again some shots later.
Revealing mistake: During Darth Vader and Ben's lightsaber duel, sometimes you can see a white wire attached to Ben's lightsaber, for example after he says, "If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."
Continuity mistake: Widescreen version only: After escaping the trash compactor, Leia says, "From now on, you do what I tell you", and Luke's left hand is up by his head. In the next shot, his right hand is up by his head and his left hand is down by his side.
Continuity mistake: After the droids land in the desert C3-PO has a streak of oil running down his left shoulder. A couple of scenes later when he is walking after he splits up from R2-D2 there is a long shot of him and he still has the streak on his left shoulder. There is an immediate close up and the streak switches to the right shoulder.
Continuity mistake: When Han yells at Chewbacca to "Get in there, you big furry ape", Chewie steps in. It cuts away, then cuts back and Chewie steps in a second time.
Continuity mistake: When the Rebel fleet is on its way to the Death Star, there's a shot where the fighters are seen from behind as they approach the Death Star. Given its tremendous size, and the rate at which it is growing larger to our view, their rate of approach must be incredible. But when Red Leader calls, "Accelerate to attack speed", when you consider their speed with their surroundings, they are now going much slower.
Audio problem: When Luke, Han, Chewie, Ben and the droids are in the control room, and Luke says "but they're going to execute her," watch closely: his mouth doesn't move for half the sentence.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Alderaan is destroyed, the "buns" on each side of Leia's head are positioned higher up than in the previous scene she was, so that her earlobes are visible. When Luke and Han rescue her, her hair is back to normal. She's held prisoner in a cell, so it's not likely that she could or would have changed her hairstyle.
Continuity mistake: When Obi-Wan's spirit instructs Luke to run, Luke is holding his blaster with two hands, and then drops it down by his side, holding it with only one hand. In the next shot, Luke is again holding the blaster with two hands, and repeats the movement.
Continuity mistake: After the escape from the Death Star, when C3PO is stuck in electric wires, there's a shot of R2D2 with the black and red computer panels of the control room in the Death Star behind him.
Other mistake: Just before Darth Vader enters the Blockade Runner, there are some kind of tiny white-green lasers in the air. They are sometimes in line with the normal red ones. The stormtroopers and the security guards of Leia are both using red lasers, so there is no reason to see green ones.
Continuity mistake: Every storm trooper has 2 pipes with slots besides their masks, but the one that shoots Leia with the stunt gun doesn't have those slots.
Revealing mistake: When Ben and Luke are transporting C3P0 after the attack of the Tusken Raiders, the arm of Anthony Daniels, the actor that plays the droid, is visible during the transition to the next shot showing Ben's house.
Answer: While planning Star Wars, Lucas had a vague notion of doing a long series of movies inspired by old serials, then dropped that idea in favor of just one. When Star Wars became a phenomenon and sequels became feasible, Lucas revisited the idea. He thought of three trilogies along with some stand-alone "in-between" stories for a total of 12 films. By the time of The Empire Strikes Back's release, this was pared down to the 9 mainline films, going by interviews with Lucas and the cast at the time. By Return of the Jedi, Lucas had decided to end the saga there, with the option that he could revisit the first three at some later point. It's unclear if Lucas ever had any specific story ideas for the proposed sequel trilogy, and they never had any scripts. Producer Gary Kurtz suggested in an interview they would've been about Luke's twin sister (not Leia), though many fans are skeptical about just how much he would know about them. Of course since this question was asked a sequel trilogy was written and released.
TonyPH