10 Biggest Star Wars Retcons
"Luke, I am your father... but not until the second draft."
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 So with a franchise as expansive and long-running as Star Wars, it was inevitable that its lore
00:05 would become increasingly muddled as time went on. And that contradictory information is a common
00:11 sight in pop culture's favorite galaxy. As I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com,
00:15 and these are the 10 Biggest Star Wars Retcons.
00:18 10. Anakin's Younger Force Ghost
00:22 The numerous changes that George Lucas has made to his original trilogy over the years have been
00:27 met with a controversial reception by many Star Wars fans. And though a bunch of them are fairly
00:32 minor and inconsequential, like Darth Vader getting his eyebrows shaved off, others are a
00:37 lot more questionable. Speaking of Vader's eyebrows, Return of the Jedi's original ending
00:42 saw the owner of those bushy decorations, Sebastian Shaw, appear before Luke as a Force
00:47 Ghost - a great moment that really solidified Vader's redemption. However, in the 2004 DVD
00:53 release of the original trilogy, Lucas decided to swap out the old Anakin for his younger
00:57 counterpart, replacing Shaw's sweet smile with Hayden Christensen's rather creepy stare,
01:02 in a change that is not only a huge visual retcon, but seemingly contradicts everything
01:07 we've learned about Force Ghosts throughout the franchise. Force Ghosts in other movies,
01:11 like Luke in The Rise of Skywalker, Yoda in The Last Jedi, Obi-Wan in The Empire Strikes Back,
01:16 look like the characters at the time of their deaths. So for Anakin to de-age a couple of
01:20 decades felt like nothing more than a cheap way to hype Revenge of the Sith up, which was due in
01:25 cinemas less than a year after the DVD's release.
01:28 9. The Age of the Republic
01:31 Now this one may not be as noticeable as other entries on our list, but it's still a fairly
01:36 big retcon that confuses the history of the Old Republic. In A New Hope, Alec Guinness's
01:41 grizzled Ben Kenobi says that the Old Republic existed for over a thousand generations,
01:46 which was interpreted by various expanded universe sources as meaning roughly 25,000 years.
01:52 However, skip ahead to the release of Attack of the Clones, and here Palpatine mentions that the
01:56 Republic has stood for over a thousand years, which as you can tell, is pretty far removed
02:01 from the 25,000 years suggested by Kenobi's line. While the expanded universe is no longer canon,
02:08 the question of which version of events is true has been hotly debated by Star Wars fans.
02:13 2020's The Star Wars Book did clear the air somewhat by claiming that the Old Republic was
02:18 founded over 25,000 years prior to A New Hope, but that only made Palpatine's Attack of the
02:23 Clones retcon even more of a head-scratcher.
02:26 8. Darth Maul's Resurrection
02:29 Now as you might expect, not all retcons are bad. Some can actually shed new light on prior events,
02:34 take a story in a more interesting direction, or, as is the case of Darth Maul's unlikely return to
02:39 the land of the living, give fans far more time with a character that they loved.
02:43 When George Lucas was crafting his grand return to the Star Wars universe in 1999's The Phantom
02:48 Menace, this devilish character was intended to be killed off for good, something Lucas made very
02:53 clear with the image of Maul's bisected body falling down one of those ridiculously long Star
02:58 Wars shafts. However, after developing Maul's brother Savage Opress through the Clone Wars
03:03 animated series, Lucas became much more interested in Maul, and feeling that he was rather under
03:08 utilized in his sole movie appearance, decided to resurrect him. Seriously, Dave Filoni responded
03:13 to this idea by saying "It's over, he's cut in half, how does that work?" only for Lucas to
03:18 bluntly reply "I don't know, figure it out." Retconning Maul's death made him even more of a
03:23 fan favorite than he already was, and with the villain even returning to the big screen in 2018's
03:28 Solo, there's always a chance that he might appear in another Star Wars project down the line.
03:32 7. Leia's Memory of Her Mother
03:36 Now, the prequels retroactively caused several problems with the original trilogy, with certain
03:41 bits of information, like the fact that R2-D2 can apparently fly as a scene in Attack of the Clones,
03:45 which works against the events of Lucas' first three movies. And one of the most confusing of
03:50 these revolves around Princess Leia's connection to her mother, Padme Amidala. In Return of the
03:55 Jedi, Leia tells Luke that she remembers her real mother, proceeding to describe her as beautiful
04:00 and kind, but sad, implying that she'd spent at least a little bit of time with her. However,
04:04 in Revenge of the Sith, Padme dies immediately after giving birth, so how could Leia have spent
04:09 any time with her at all? Though plenty of explanations for this have been bandied around
04:13 for years, such as Leia's Force ability allowing her to sense Padme, the fact of the matter is that
04:18 George Lucas didn't know Leia's mother was going to die in childbirth while writing Return of the
04:23 Jedi, making Padme's untimely end a retcon of Leia's memories.
04:26 6. The Origin of the Death Star's Weakness
04:31 The fact that the Rebel Alliance was able to discover and exploit the Death Star's weakness
04:36 in A New Hope always felt a little improbable, as did the fact that the Empire's planet-killing
04:41 battle station had such a catastrophic defect in the first place. It obviously wasn't a plot hole
04:45 or anything like that, but it just felt a wee bit too convenient. Not that the Rebels would care,
04:50 with Luke's precisely aimed proton torpedoes granting them an unprecedented victory over a
04:55 much stronger enemy. But in 2016's Rogue One A Star Wars Story, this particular plot point received
05:01 a most welcome retcon, with the revelation that the Death Star's weakness wasn't as random as it
05:05 seemed and had actually been put there by its architect. Is this what George Lucas had planned
05:10 all the way back in 1977? Certainly not, but as with Maul's resurrection, this is another example
05:16 of a good retcon, since the idea of the weakness being planted by Mads Mikkelsen's conflicted
05:21 engineer is a way more compelling one than it being just an unintentional design flaw.
05:25 5. Somehow Palpatine Returned
05:30 Though The Last Jedi left audiences divided over the direction of Disney's Star Wars sequels,
05:35 the revelation that Emperor Palpatine was set to return for the rise of Skywalker was exciting for
05:39 fans of all ages. But unfortunately, the explanation for how Palp survived his
05:44 'death' in Return of the Jedi was lazy at best, with Poe Dameron's line of 'Somehow Palpatine
05:50 Returned' serving as the movie's only attempt to fill in the blanks. Clearly, the writers found it
05:54 difficult to come up with a decent explanation, and that's probably because Palpatine was never
05:58 intended to return from the grave, despite what Kathleen Kennedy might tell you.
06:03 George Lucas actually shot down the idea of a Palpatine return whilst making Episode 6,
06:08 bluntly telling the actor, "No, he's dead." In addition, Colin Trevorrow, who was originally
06:13 attached to direct The Rise of Skywalker, has said that bringing back Palpatine was something
06:17 "I never considered", meaning that the Sith Lord's comeback wasn't added until the new team
06:21 decided to board the project in 2017. Retconning Palpatine's death then forced The Rise of
06:27 Skywalker to retcon Snoke's entire character. In the first two movies, he was clearly meant to be
06:32 someone new with a mysterious agenda of his own, not just a puppet that was grown in a jar.
06:36 4. Luke and Leia are siblings
06:40 With the hindsight of Episodes 6 to 9, it's always a little odd to go back and watch that
06:45 infamous kiss between Luke and Leia in Episode 5, as well as their quick little peck before
06:50 swinging over that shaft in Episode 4. With the pair being revealed as siblings in the final
06:54 chapter of the original trilogy, it's a tad uncomfortable to see them playing tonsil tennis
06:58 in the first two movies. But, to be fair to everyone involved, that familial bond was not
07:04 on the cards when A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back were being written. In 1999,
07:08 original Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz discussed George Lucas' initial plans for the Star Wars saga,
07:14 which were outlined in the 1970s. As well as revealing that Han Solo was supposed to die
07:18 in Return of the Jedi, a plot point that Harrison Ford would've definitely been chuffed to hear,
07:22 Kurtz also noted that Leia was not to be Luke's sister. Instead, Luke's sister was going to be a
07:27 completely different character who, interestingly, Lucas wasn't planning on introducing until Episode
07:33 8. Clearly, though, things changed when Lucas was developing the original trilogy,
07:37 and if nothing else, we should all be thankful that the extended, more intimate version of their
07:41 Empire Strikes Back kissing scene did not make the final cut.
07:44 3. Rey's Parentage
07:48 The fact that the sequel trilogy didn't have a plan from the get-go meant that
07:52 the movies didn't feel like a connected trilogy, rather that it felt that each entry was trying to
07:56 make things up on the fly, which is exactly what happened. Along with those aforementioned Palpatine
08:01 and Snoke retcons, this lack of planning was at its most evident with Rey's parentage, which was
08:05 not only retconned between movies, but was also being changed while those movies were in the midst
08:10 of production. The identity of her parents was one of the biggest questions coming out of The Force
08:15 Awakens, but all was revealed in The Last Jedi, where we learned that they were just filthy junk
08:20 traders who had sold her for drinking money. However, The Rise of Skywalker flipped this
08:24 script by claiming that she was actually Palpatine's granddaughter, but according to Daisy
08:28 Ridley, even that wasn't set in stone until they were deep into production. "It came to Episode 9
08:33 and J.J. pitched me the film and was like, 'Oh yeah, Palpatine is granddaddy.' I was like, 'Awesome,'
08:38 and then two weeks later he was like, 'Oh, actually, we're not sure,' so it kept changing.
08:42 Even as we were filming, I wasn't sure what the answer was going to be."
08:45 The actress also claims that the filmmakers were toying with an Obi-Wan connection at one point
08:49 as well, before ultimately settling on The Last Jedi's "nobody" angle and then changing their
08:54 minds again whilst making The Rise of Skywalker. The entire sequel trilogy is about Rey and her
08:59 journey of discovery, so the fact that Lucasfilm didn't have a plan for that journey is quite
09:04 frankly ridiculous.
09:05 2. Han and Greedo's Shootout
09:08 Harrison Ford might not give a damn about this, but the Han and Greedo "Who Shot" first debate
09:14 has been one of the most contentious topics in the Star Wars fandom for the last several decades.
09:19 "Did you shoot Greedo first, or did Greedo shoot you first?"
09:23 "I don't care."
09:24 The Episode IV scene in which our iconic smuggler is confronted by the bounty hunter has been
09:29 subject to countless changes and re-edits over the years, each of them only adding more confusion to
09:34 the situation than the last. In the original cut of the film, Han blasts Greedo away before the
09:38 alien has a chance to react, emphasising the fact that Mr Solo is quite the scoundrel and will do
09:43 whatever it takes to survive. George Lucas, however, didn't want people to think that this
09:47 lovable rogue was a cold-blooded killer, so he added a quick shot of Greedo firing first to
09:52 justify Han's actions as being in self-defence. While having Greedo shoot first might seem like
09:58 a small wreck on many fans feel that it weakened Han's turn from anti-hero to galactic saviour,
10:03 and that Han shot first is the definitive version of this scene. The makers of Solo,
10:08 a Star Wars Story, agree with that sentiment as well, with the final confrontation between
10:12 Han and Beckett being described as "there can be no question that Han shoots first on the page".
10:18 1. Vader being Luke's father It's impossible to imagine the Star Wars
10:24 saga playing out in any other way, but yes, indeed, quite possibly the biggest plot twist in
10:29 cinematic history was actually retconned into existence, rather than being just planned out
10:33 from the very beginning. "A young Jedi named Darth Vader betrayed and murdered your father,"
10:38 states Obi-Wan in A New Hope, alluding to the fact that Luke's old man and Anakin Skywalker
10:43 were originally two separate characters. Even when George Lucas came to hash out the Empire
10:48 Strikes Back, this was still the case, with Lee Brackett's 1978 draft of the script featuring a
10:53 scene where Luke meets his father, who is named Skywalker, and crucially, is not Vader. Sadly,
10:59 Brackett passed away shortly after handing that draft in, and Lucas soon continued developing
11:03 the story. It was during this time that Vader being Luke's daddy was added to the script,
11:08 a twist so shocking that Lucas went to great lengths to keep it a secret, including telling
11:12 the man in the suit, David Prowse, that the line was actually "Obi-Wan killed your father",
11:17 and only adding in the real line in a post-production dub. Very sneaky indeed.
11:22 And there we go, my friends, those were the 10 biggest Star Wars retcons. I hope that you
11:26 enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down in the comments section
11:30 below. As always, I've been Jules, and you can go follow me over on Twitter @RetroJ, but the O
11:34 is a zero, or you can swing by Instagram where it's the same handle, @RetroJ but the O is a zero.
11:40 But before I go, I just want to say one thing. Hope you're treating yourself well with love and
11:43 respect, my friend, because you deserve all of the best things out there, and do not let anything or
11:47 anyone else tell you otherwise, alright? You are a massive legend, you deserve love, happiness,
11:52 and success, and I want you to go out there and absolutely smash your life goals today.
11:55 I believe in ya. As always, I've been Jules, you have been awesome,
11:59 never forget that, and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.
12:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]