'The Last Jedi' Proves That George Lucas' 'Revenge of the Jedi' Ending Would Have Worked
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi was probably the least popular movie of the recent sequel trilogy. Some fans loved what Rian Johnson had done to Star Wars lore. Others wished the movie had not existed. Now as Screen Rant have pointed out, perhaps The Last Jedi did not stray too far from what George Lucas intended. It might have borrowed some ideas from early drafts of Return of the Jedi.
Many fundamental changes took place during the filming of Return of the Jedi. Its original title was supposed to have been Revenge of the Jedi. It was later changed as George Lucas noted that a Jedi would not take revenge. (Revenge fits the Sith better than the Jedi anyway) George Lucas and writer Lawrence Kasdan also came up with several different endings for the last chapter of the original trilogy. In one possible ending, Luke was supposed to kill Darth Vader, turn to the dark side, and fight against his sister Leia and the Rebel Alliance. Another ending saw Obi-Wan and Yoda returning after their death to join the fight against Emperor Palpatine. While these ideas ended up getting scrapped in the final product, The Last Jedi showed that the Force ghost plan could have worked.
Elaborating more on this particular Revenge of the Jedi scenario, during Luke's confrontation with Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine, Obi-Wan was to come back from the dead as a result of Yoda and Luke's combined power and will. While Obi-Wan assists Luke in his final fight in the physical world, Yoda will lend his power from the "netherworld" by deflecting the Emperor's Force lightning. In the end, Palpatine would be defeated, Vader would turn to the light side before passing into the netherworld, the Empire would fall, and the Rebel Alliance would win the day. In another surprise scene, Yoda and Anakin would appear as ghosts, and the good guys would celebrate their victory over evil. It would be the revenge of the Jedi indeed.
Now, The Last Jedi demonstrated that the Force powers mentioned above might have worked. When Yoda appeared to Luke on Ahch-To and shared his wisdom on the future of the Jedi Order, he summoned a bolt of lightning to strike the island's sacred tree, setting it on fire in a dramatic display of his Force power. This was the first time a Force ghost was ahown to be able to affect the material world. In previous movies, you would only see their translucent apparitions. A Force ghost being able to interact with the material world opens up other possible avenues to explore in future Star Wars media.
In the original trilogy, when Obi-Wan sacrificed himself to become "more powerful than you can possibly imagine," we did not see him do much other than tell Luke to "use the Force" and confirm that Darth Vader was indeed Anakin Skywalker and Luke and Leia's father. If Force ghosts could affect the material world in a meaningful way as demonstrated by Yoda in The Last Jedi, then the story of The Rise of Skywalker could have played out differently. In the scene where the voices of past Jedi like Luke Skywalker, Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, Mace Windu, Yoda, Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Kanan Jarrus encourage Rey to get up and fight Palpatine/Darth Sidious, imagine if they could have done more than provide moral support, and literally fought the Dark Lord with her. The Force ghosts could have shielded her from the Force lightning, and guided her hands as she used her lightsaber against Palpatine.
Unfortunately, the changes in directors between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker and the apparent lack of planning probably led to the disjunction felt in the two movies. When evaluated individually, the two movies were not bad on their own. However, the lack of flow and continuity between the two made them appear inferior to the original trilogy, the gold standard by which all Star Wars movies and media are measured against. Perhaps future Star Wars projects would be able to draw from these past ideas and present a more homogenized story.
Source(s): Screen Rant