Where to watch Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)

Trivia & production notes

• George Lucas personally financed Return of the Jedi but opted not to direct it himself, leading him to approach Steven Spielberg, David Lynch, and David Cronenberg before eventually hiring Richard Marquand.
• Steven Spielberg could not direct Return of the Jedi because his ongoing feud with the Directors Guild of America resulted in him being banned from the project.
• David Lynch turned down the opportunity to direct Return of the Jedi because he believed George Lucas should direct his own creation.
• The film was originally titled Revenge of the Jedi after screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan told Lucas the title Return of the Jedi was weak, though the original title was eventually restored.
• Harrison Ford was not contractually obligated to return for Return of the Jedi, and producer Howard Kazanjian had to convince him to participate, while Han Solo was initially absent from early script versions.
• Warwick Davis, who had no film acting experience, replaced Kenny Baker as Wicket the Ewok after Baker fell ill with food poisoning on the day of filming.
• The production used the ruse title Blue Harvest with the tagline Horror Beyond Imagination to disguise filming from fans, press, and service providers who might otherwise raise prices.
• Filming took place at Elstree Studios in England across all nine sound stages, followed by location shoots in Arizona's Yuma Desert and California's Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park.
• Steadicam inventor Garrett Brown personally filmed forest backgrounds for the speeder chase by walking at 5 mph while shooting at less than one frame per second, which played at normal speed when projected.
• Using Industrial Light Magic for special effects saved the production approximately 18 million dollars, though the budget remained 32.5 million overall.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Return of the Jedi, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.