Why Did George Lucas Choose 'Return Of The Jedi' As The Name Of The Final Movie?
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Making a work of fiction is one of the most grueling tasks a creative person can undertake. The plot, the characters, and the genre, to say nothing of trying to make the story ‘palatable’ to as many people as possible. But if you talk to enough writers, they will tell you that it’s actually creating a title that is the hardest part, a problem that even visionaries like George Lucas faced when making the sixth (or rather third) Star Wars film, Return of the Jedi.
The story started way back in 1981 when George Lucas and co-writer Lawrence Kasdan began their work on the next Star Wars film, the second sequel to the cult-hit A New Hope. After getting the film greenlit and an arduous hunt for a director (which involved snubs from Cronenburg, Lynch, and a feud with Spielberg, no less), Lucas and Kasdan faced a new obstacle - the film’s title.
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Lucas was set on the title being Return of the Jedi but Kasdan wasn’t satisfied. In Kasdan’s eyes, the film title was a little too bland and from a purely aesthetic perspective, he may have been right. This film was supposed to be the big finale in a groundbreaking space opera trilogy, so it shouldn’t it have a title to reflect that grandiosity? Lucas eventually agreed, changing the film’s title to Revenge of the Jedi instead. The filming for Revenge of the Jedi began in January 1982 and continued until the following May and for a while, it seemed like the ‘non-bland’ title was going to stick.
The executives at Lucasfilm seemed happy with the title, and the marketing was underway (including posters made by Drew Struzan and a teaser narrated by James Earl Jones), but something wasn’t quite right in Lucas’ eyes, which resulted in him re-designating the film’s title as Return of the Jedi. This move came months after a worldwide marketing campaign for the film and only a few months before the film’s release, causing quite the spectacle and ruffling tufts of Wookiee fur all over Lucasfilm’s exec and art departments.
Why would Lucas do this? Well, the world got its answer when Sidney Ganis, Lucasfilm’s Senior Vice President, finally confronted Lucas over the change - and Lucas responded with four simple words:
“Jedi don’t take revenge.”
And Lucas was right. Since the inception of Star Wars, Lucas had been insisting that Jedi were guardians of peace and a force for good throughout the galaxy, not killers that jumped at every vendetta. The title of a creative work encompasses the essence of that work - the entirety of the work’s plot, characters, and message. Would the message of ‘revenge’ suit the climax of Luke’s Jedi journey, after all he had endured? Luke’s journey (and that of the Rebellion) wasn’t about revenge against the Empire, it was about restoration - restoring peace and order to a galaxy infested with evil, darkness, and tyranny; the very same peace and order that the Jedi once stood for. By making ‘revenge’ the central theme of the film, it would not only be an injustice to Luke’s arc but to what being a Jedi stood for. No, the Jedi would not be revenge-ing, thought Lucas; they would be returning.
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