Continuity mistake: In the Death Star, when they are running into the Millennium Falcon, Leia tells Luke to come. She is behind a piston of the door but the shot later, she is in front of it.
Continuity mistake: After the dianoga pulls Luke into the water (both the first and second time), Han's blaster changes hands a few times.
Continuity mistake: When the Walrusman attacks Luke in the cantina, if you look carefully you can see that the alien has curved hooves instead of hands (behind the scenes photos confirm this.) When Ben Kenobi cuts off his arm, an arm with hairy paws is lying on the floor. We know it is walrusman's arm because the other guy wasn't wearing an orange jacket.
Continuity mistake: When the walls of the trash compactor start moving, the bar Leia uses to brace them is easily obtainable, but in the previous shots, it was partly buried in garbage.
Continuity mistake: When Luke and Obi-Wan are talking to Han in the Cantina, the black cup on the table is sometimes standing right by Han's hands, and sometimes right next to Luke, depending on the camera angle.
Continuity mistake: In the trash compactor, after the dianoga roars, there's a close-up of Leia standing straight up, with her arm over the large iron pole. In the next shot, she is crouching, and her arm is underneath the pole. (01:16:40)
Continuity mistake: In the original version of the film, when Luke and C-3PO are searching for R2-D2 outside the moisture farm, in the shot where Luke says, "It's too dangerous with all the Sand People around. We'll have to wait until morning", the sky changes colour. This has been fixed in the Special Edition.
Continuity mistake: Widescreen version only: When Luke activates his new lightsaber for the first time, the position of C-3PO's head is different from the previous shot. After he turns it off, Threepio's head is back to its original position.
Continuity mistake: In the Death Star, when Luke and Leia are going to jump over the pit, Leia wraps her hands around Luke's neck. In the following shots, her hands are wrapped around his waist.
Continuity mistake: When Luke and Obi-Wan enter Docking Bay 94 in Mos Eisley, as the first shot ends, C-3PO is turned to his left and is standing right behind Obi-Wan on Obi-Wan's left. In the next shot, Threepio is turned to his right, and is standing further away from Obi-Wan, behind him on Obi-Wan's right. (00:52:25)
Continuity mistake: Widescreen version: In the trash compactor, as Han says: "What an incredible smell you've discovered." Leia is leaning against some garbage, and then turns her head. In the next shot, she is no longer leaning against the garbage, and her head is turned another way. (01:16:05)
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.
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.
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.
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