What Return of the Jedi could have been

Remember the “What If?” comics Marvel used to put out featuring alternate story lines featuring of your favourite superheroes, like “What if the Hulk killed Wolverine?” or “What if Spider-Man joined the Fantastic Four?” Well imagine if George Lucas had gone through with his original treatment for Return of the Jedi if money and greed hadn’t got in the way? I suppose it would have been called something like “What if George Lucas wasn’t a money-grubbing whore?”

In an LA Times interview, Gary Kurtz, producer of Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, opens up about his role in the first two Star Wars films and his falling out with Lucas after the second film. According to Kurtz, their story for the third instalment of The Trilogy would have been much darker, but Lucas’ greed got the better of him. 

“Instead of bittersweet and poignant he wanted a euphoric ending with everybody happy. The original idea was that they would recover [the kidnapped] Han Solo in the early part of the story and that he would then die in the middle part of the film in a raid on an Imperial base. George then decided he didn’t want any of the principals killed. By that time there were really big toy sales and that was a reason."

The discussed ending of the film that Kurtz favored presented the rebel forces in tatters, Leia grappling with her new duties as queen and Luke walking off alone “like Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti westerns,” as Kurtz put it.

I would be inclined to write this off as the rantings of a bitter, old man, but this is the first time Kurtz is saying this in public. He could have gone on record years ago after The Phantom Menace showed just how low Lucas had sunk from a creative stand-point, but he kept his mouth shut. I’d say that while it’s impossible to know just how good (or bad) Jedi would have been had they stuck to the original story, Kurtz’s insights into Lucas’ quest for commercial success over artistic credibility is probably accurate, and no less insightful.