Chris Higgins
Return of the Jedi – New Deleted Scene Released
by Chris Higgins - August 16, 2010 - 9:50 AM

Update: it appears that all YouTube versions of the clip have been removed, though there is a version available here. For now, anyway.

This past weekend, a Star Wars fan event called Star Wars Celebration V took place in Orange County, California Orlando, Florida — basically a galaxy far, far away. The main event was the unveiling of a deleted scene from Return of the Jedi, a scene that has been known about and discussed by nerds for more than 25 years, a scene in which Darth Vader uses the Force to invite Luke to join him on the Dark Side, while Luke is busy building a new lightsaber on Tatooine. The bit with Luke is nicely done, as you’ll see — it puts a pretty different spin on his motivations during the movie. Too bad they cut it.

You’ve waited for this for 25 years, people. It’s only 55 seconds long. Strap your nerd hats on and check it out:

(Via Daring Fireball.)

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Comments (31)

  1. That’s amazing!

    posted by Ben on 8-16-2010 at 10:08 am

  2. ????

    Perhaps if I were one of those nerdboys who have memorized every frame of every scene of all six Star Wars movies (and their variants) it would mean more to me….but right about now, my only reaction is “meh”. I couldn’t even tell you where in the movie that scene would have been, even if you held a blaster to my head.

    I guess I’m not as much of a geek as I thought I was.

    -”BB”-

    posted by Bicycle Bill on 8-16-2010 at 10:14 am

  3. That was at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando FL this past weekend (a galaxy right next door, not far far away). Unless… was there a concurrent event in California?

    posted by Mark on 8-16-2010 at 10:28 am

  4. orLANDO (Florida)

    posted by JC on 8-16-2010 at 10:50 am

  5. *concurs with “BB”*

    posted by Jon B on 8-16-2010 at 10:59 am

  6. Agree with Bicycle Bill… maybe I’m missing the whole point, but how does it shed more light on his motivations? I’m lost on that comment.

    At first I thought it was the Emperor, not Luke.

    posted by Zach on 8-16-2010 at 11:18 am

  7. Wow…. I am one of the geeks who knows the movie by heart. It’s a great scene. I love actually getting to see Luke putting the finshing touches on his own lightsaber, which is (of course!) the completion of his Jedi training. Definitely creepy with the showing of him looking SO MUCH like the Emperor!!

    posted by Anowscara on 8-16-2010 at 11:22 am

  8. I’m with Anowscara & Ben. Very cool scene and would have worked very well. Lost that scene, but stupid Ewoks save the day? Ah Lucas you rich ahole.

    You don’t need to memorize the films since they show them every other month on TBS, i.e. yesterday.

    posted by Tom Weidermeijer on 8-16-2010 at 11:35 am

  9. Whoops, Orlando/Orange County mixup fixed.

    Regarding how this changes the character, to me it’s two things:

    1. The obvious visual casts Luke as a replacement for the Emperor. So the notion would presumably be that Vader would kill the Emperor, become the new Emperor, and Luke would be kinda the new Vader? Or some such. Anyway, it’s a clear visual indication of what might have been, and leaves it up to the viewer to figure out whether Luke is secretly motivated to achieve this power that’s being offered.

    2. Late in the film, when Vader attacks the Emperor (to save Luke) we realize that the offer really is genuine. Vader does care about Luke, and he would have gone on to do this crazy evil team-up thing. So basically Luke saves the universe by resisting his father’s offers.

    posted by Chris Higgins on 8-16-2010 at 11:45 am

  10. I agree with you 100%, Anow. I’m one of those geeks as well. I can’t wait to see this clip in its entirety when the SW Blu-Rays come out.

    posted by Tosche on 8-16-2010 at 11:46 am

  11. Bike Bill: Holster your blaster. Looks like the clip would segue between the scene where Vader warns his underling about the forgiveness threshold of the Emporer and the scene of 2 nervous Droids on Tatooine, heading toward Jabba’s palace. Notice Luke hasn’t planted the saber on R2 yet.

    posted by Millennium Bird-of-Prey on 8-16-2010 at 12:14 pm

  12. Keep in mind that, according to something I read a while back, that for a while, Lucas was considering having Luke go over to the dark side and then having Leia defeat him and Vader.

    Or something like that.

    posted by Anthony on 8-16-2010 at 12:34 pm

  13. What a cool scene!

    I was personally hoping for the much-rumored “light racket” scene wherein Luke devises a tennis racket-styled light saber. Yoda uses the force to lob balls of the planet Tynn’s service (which the local inhabitants call “istch” in their native tongue). Luke is able to knock these “Tynn itsch” balls back at lightning speed, and Yoda smiles and nods, knowing his training is complete.

    Later in the film, a scene was scripted that featured Luke battling Vader, who had created his own evil red “light racket.” Luke defeated him and Han Solo quipped “You got him 40-love, kid… looks like love conquers all!” to joyous unintelligible growls from Chewbacca! Cue fanfare!

    posted by Aaron on 8-16-2010 at 12:53 pm

  14. @Aaron:

    I don’t know how much money you have in the bank, so I will say you are either crazy or eccentric.

    posted by Andrew on 8-16-2010 at 1:47 pm

  15. Heh! Didn’t realize it was Luke! If this scene went before Luke goes to save Leia from J-Hut, it makes sense, redeems his previous emo-whining and underscores his determination to not give in to the Dark Side.

    posted by tona b. on 8-16-2010 at 1:51 pm

  16. I’m about the biggest star wars fan around and even I give that a “meh”.

    The original 3 were George Lucas’ masterpieces – there are plenty of cut, re-shot and omitted scenes that were left out because they took away from the greatness of the movie.

    George Lucas’s bastardization of the movies in the 90′s adding crap and changing crap did nothing to add to the movie, just like this scene.

    posted by david on 8-16-2010 at 2:21 pm

  17. I think I know why it was cut:

    Loooooo-khhh!
    Loooooo-khhh!
    Loooooo-khhh!
    Loooooo-khhh!

    The image of Luke engaging his new lightsaber is pretty bad-ass, but there’s nothing here that isn’t already presented through dialogue in the rest of the film. As a matter of fact, this would reveal to the audience that Luke has a new light saber, which would take away some of the rising action (read: goose bumps) when Artoo rockets it to Luke on the plank.
    Chris, the hooded robe makes him look as much like Obi Wan as it does the Emperor, because hooded robes are the garb of all Masters of the force. Luke is never duplicitous about his intentions. He’s in it to save Anakin all the way.

    posted by Chance on 8-16-2010 at 2:44 pm

  18. I’m with David. Han shot first, end of story.

    posted by Mark on 8-16-2010 at 3:19 pm

  19. I like the scene and wish it had been kept in the final cut. However, it seems weird that he makes the light saber, then somehow instantly becomes a Jedi-Master, then he hides it inside R2D2, to use it for the first time in the middle of an escape.

    It is really cool to see Luke build his saber, but it is really a lot to make sense of. I can see why they cut it, but would have liked it to stay.

    P.S. I agree Han Shot first!! To me it is one of the most important character developments in the original 3. You learned so much about Han in that very instant.

    posted by Morris on 8-16-2010 at 4:08 pm

  20. It’s not just seeing the lightsaber that early that throws things off … it’s seeing Luke. His entrance in the finished film is wonderfully dramatic, coming as it does after all the other major characters are in play. Seeing him at the start throws off the gradual accumulation of our heroes (droids, then Lando, then Leia and Chewie, then Han). Luke, being the fulcrum around which the whole rescue turns, needs to appear last to maximize the dramatic tension of the whole Jabba’s palace sequence. Cutting the scene was the right thing to do.

    Nice, though, that the second Death Star comes with its own meditation chamber for Vader. I wonder how many of those he had strewn about the galaxy.

    posted by cpierson on 8-16-2010 at 4:34 pm

  21. removed dure to copyright issues. Not cool.

    posted by Ben on 8-16-2010 at 6:09 pm

  22. Something I’m confused about: Ok, at the end of “The Empire Strike Back” Like gets his hand cut off by Vader. However, in the deleted scene (which I had to look at a bootleg copy of on Youtube) it looks like Luke still has both of his hands. Am I just wrong about the timeline of events or what’s going on?

    posted by Vicki on 8-16-2010 at 6:41 pm

  23. Vicki — “bionic” hand. They show it being attached at the end of ESB.

    posted by Mark on 8-16-2010 at 7:00 pm

  24. Oh yeah that’s right. I got so used to seeing Luke always having it covered with a black glove I forgot that it looked like a normal hand. I think that since Anakin had robotic hand, I forgot they make Luke’s look normal. I was getting things confused. Thanks.

    posted by Vicki on 8-16-2010 at 8:00 pm

  25. OK, George, take the video down. Just remember, the more you tighten your grip…

    posted by Joe Maz on 8-16-2010 at 8:26 pm

  26. Dang… Lucasfilm Ltd. strikes again…

    posted by old hippy chick on 8-16-2010 at 9:41 pm

  27. Though I agree that Luke’s entrance in RotJ is well-timed, this scene does demonstrate Luke’s growing abilities since he can now see future events, which leads him to hide the saber in R2. So the hood is appropriate as he now has power similar to Yoda and the Emperor.

    posted by Stephen on 8-17-2010 at 12:09 am

  28. I already saw this a number of times on Starwars.com and theforce.net. (yes i am one of though geeks) I think that this sence is very cool, and since the completion of the lightsaber is so huge in the Jedi training, i think it should be been kept in.
    Also I am one that did enjoy the ep 1 thru 3. Loved, loved, loved ROTS. Yoda’s battle was great.

    posted by John on 8-17-2010 at 8:45 am

  29. “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Lucasfilm Ltd.”

    FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

    posted by Zoasterboy on 8-17-2010 at 10:44 am

  30. For those who neeeeeed to see the clip, Gawker still has it:

    http://tv.gawker.com/5612987/watch-luke-skywalker-become-a-jedi-knight-in-this-deleted-star-wars-scene

    posted by Chris Higgins on 8-17-2010 at 2:59 pm

  31. I remember reading the novelization when the movie came out, and this was the prologue. Always thought the movie could have used it — though it probably would have taken away from the awesome when R2-ex-machina shoots him the lightsaber — because you never really see how Luke goes from a few days’ training to being a full Jedi, and this would have at least shown that Luke had put some more time in. Would have put some more needed tension in the works at the end, too, when Luke surrenders.

    posted by NEB on 8-17-2010 at 5:36 pm

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