List of changes in Star Wars re-releases

The following are partial lists of changes in Star Wars re-releases. The commercial success of Star Wars has given George Lucas the opportunity to tinker with his original trilogy, now called Episode IV A New Hope, Episode V The Empire Strikes Back, and Episode VI Return of the Jedi. In a September 2004 MSNBC article, Lucas points out that the original films were "25 or 30 percent" of what he intended.

Many changes were motivated by the vast improvements in CGI technology and other production techniques that occurred in the two decades after the original trilogy was produced. Other changes improved the cohesiveness among the films, and eliminated continuity errors between the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy.

Changes to Star Wars films after the theatrical release aren't always limited to the original trilogy. In the release of The Phantom Menace DVD, two deleted portions were either partially or completely restored.

The original, unaltered theatrical editions were released (as bonus material) on DVD on September 12, 2006. In 2011, the latest modifications to Episodes I-VI were released on Blu-ray.

Text and facts from the “List of changes in Star Wars re-releases” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.