10 Biggest Star Wars Retcons

WhatCulture

21 hours ago

"Luke, I am your father... but not until the second draft."

Transcript

00:00So with the franchise as expansive and long-running as Star Wars, it was inevitable that its lore would

00:05become increasingly muddled as time went on, and that contradictory information is a common sight

00:11in pop culture's favourite galaxy. As I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com, and these are the 10

00:16biggest Star Wars retcons. 10. Anakin's Younger Force Ghost

00:22Now, the numerous changes that George Lucas has made to his original trilogy over the years have

00:27been met with a controversial reception by many Star Wars fans, and though a bunch of them are

00:32fairly minor and inconsequential, like Darth Vader getting his eyebrows shaved off, others are a lot

00:37more questionable. Speaking of Vader's eyebrows, Return of the Jedi's original ending saw the owner

00:43of those bushy decorations, Sebastian Shaw, appear before Luke as a Force ghost, a great moment that

00:48really solidified Vader's redemption. However, in the 2004 DVD release of the original trilogy,

00:54Lucas decided to swap out the old Anakin for his younger counterpart, replacing Shaw's sweet smile

01:00with Hayden Christensen's rather creepy stare, in a change that is not only a huge visual retcon,

01:05but seemingly contradicts everything we've learned about Force ghosts throughout the franchise.

01:10Force ghosts in other movies, like Luke in The Rise of Skywalker, Yoda in The Last Jedi,

01:14Obi-Wan in The Empire Strikes Back, look like the characters at the time of their deaths.

01:19So for Anakin to de-age a couple of decades felt like nothing more than a cheap way to hype Revenge

01:24of the Sith up, which was due in cinemas less than a year after the DVD's release.

01:299. The Age of the Republic

01:31Now this one may not be as noticeable as other entries on our list, but it's still a fairly big

01:36retcon that confuses the history of the Old Republic. In A New Hope, Alec Guinness's

01:41grizzled Ben Kenobi says that the Old Republic existed for over a thousand generations,

01:46which was interpreted by various Expanded Universe sources as meaning roughly 25,000 years.

01:52However, skip ahead to the release of Attack of the Clones, and here Palpatine mentions that

01:57the Republic has stood for over a thousand years, which, as you can tell, is pretty far removed

02:01from the 25,000 years suggested by Kenobi's line. While the Expanded Universe is no longer canon,

02:08the question of which version of events is true has been hotly debated by Star Wars fans.

02:132020's The Star Wars book did clear the air somewhat by claiming that the Old Republic

02:17was founded over 25,000 years prior to A New Hope, but that only made Palpatine's Attack of

02:23the Clones retcon even more of a head-scratcher.

02:278. Darth Maul's Resurrection

02:29Now, as you might expect, not all retcons are bad. Some can actually shed new light on prior events,

02:34take a story in a more interesting direction, or, as is the case of Darth Maul's unlikely return

02:39to the land of the living, give fans far more time with a character that they loved.

02:43When George Lucas was crafting his grand return to the Star Wars universe in 1999's The Phantom

02:48Menace, this devilish character was intended to be killed off for good, something Lucas made very

02:53clear with the image of Maul's bisected body falling down one of those ridiculously long Star

02:58Wars shafts. However, after developing Maul's brother, Savage Oppressed, through the Clone Wars

03:03animated series, Lucas became much more interested in Maul, and feeling that he was rather underutilized

03:08in his sole movie appearance, decided to resurrect him. Series lead Dave Filoni responded to this

03:13idea by saying, it's over, he's cut in half, how does that work? Only for Lucas to bluntly

03:18reply, I don't know, figure it out.

03:21Retconning Maul's death made him even more of a fan-favorite than he already was, and with

03:25the villain even returning to the big screen in 2018's Solo, there's always a chance that

03:29he might appear in another Star Wars project down the line.

03:337. Leia's Memory of Her Mother

03:36Now, the prequels retroactively caused several problems with the original trilogy, with certain

03:41bits of information, like the fact that R2-D2 can apparently fly as a scene in Attack of the

03:45Clones, which works against the events of Lucas' first three movies. And one of the most confusing

03:50of these revolves around Princess Leia's connection to her mother, Padme Amidala. In The Return of

03:55the Jedi, Leia tells Luke that she remembers her real mother, proceeding to describe her as

03:59beautiful and kind, but sad, implying that she'd spent at least a little bit of time with

04:04her. However, in Revenge of the Sith, Padme dies immediately after giving birth, so how

04:09could Leia have spent any time with her at all? Though plenty of explanations for this

04:12have been bandied around for years, such as Leia's force ability allowing her to sense

04:16Padme, the fact of the matter is that George Lucas didn't know Leia's mother was going

04:20to die in childbirth while writing Return of the Jedi, making Padme's untimely end a retcon

04:25of Leia's memories. 6. The Origin of the Death Star's Weakness

04:31The fact that the Rebel Alliance was able to discover and exploit the Death Star's weakness

04:36in A New Hope always felt a little improbable, as did the fact that the Empire's planet-killing

04:41battle station had such a catastrophic defect in the first place. It obviously wasn't a plot

04:45hole or anything like that, but it just felt a wee bit too convenient. Not that the Rebels

04:50would care with Luke's precisely aimed proton torpedoes granting them an unprecedented victory

04:54over a much stronger enemy. But in 2016's Rogue One A Star Wars Story, this particular

05:00plot point received a most welcome retcon, with the revelation that the Death Star's

05:04weakness wasn't as random as it seemed and had actually been put there by its architect.

05:08Is this what George Lucas had planned all the way back in 1977? Certainly not. But as with

05:14Maul's resurrection, this is another example of a good retcon, since the idea of the weakness

05:18being planted by Mads Mikkelsen's conflicted engineer is a way more compelling one than it being

05:23just an unintentional design flaw.

05:275. Somehow Palpatine Returned

05:29Now, though The Last Jedi left audiences divided over the direction of Disney's Star Wars sequels,

05:35the revelation that Emperor Palpatine was set to return for The Rise of Skywalker was exciting

05:39for fans of all ages. But unfortunately, though, the explanation for how Palp survived his

05:44death in Return of the Jedi was lazy at best, with Poe Dameron's line of somehow Palpatine returned,

05:50serving as the movie's only attempt to fill in the blanks. Clearly, the writers found it difficult

05:55to come up with a decent explanation, and that's probably because Palpatine was never intended to

05:59return from the grave, despite what Kathleen Kennedy might tell you. George Lucas actually

06:04shot down the idea of a Palpatine return whilst making Episode 6, bluntly telling the actor,

06:09no, he's dead. In addition, Colin Trevorrow, who was originally attached to direct The Rise of

06:14Skywalker, has said that bringing back Palpatine was something I never considered, meaning that the

06:19Sith Lord's comeback wasn't added until the new team decided to board the project in 2017.

06:24Retconning Palpatine's death then forced The Rise of Skywalker to retcon Snoke's entire character.

06:30In the first two movies, he was clearly meant to be someone new with a mysterious agenda of his own,

06:34not just a puppet that was grown in a jar. 4. Luke and Leia are siblings

06:40With the hindsight of Episodes 6-9, it's always a little odd to go back and watch that infamous

06:45kiss between Luke and Leia in Episode 5, as well as their quick little peck before swinging over

06:50that shaft in Episode 4. With the pair being revealed as siblings in the final chapter of

06:55the original trilogy, it's a tad uncomfortable to see them playing tonsil tennis in the first two movies,

07:00but to be fair to everyone involved, that familial bond was not on the cards when A New Hope and

07:05The Empire Strikes Back were being written. In 1999, original Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz

07:10discussed George Lucas' initial plans for the Star Wars saga, which were outlined in the 1970s.

07:16As well as revealing that Han Solo was supposed to die in Return of the Jedi, a plot point that

07:20Harrison Ford would have definitely been chuffed to hear, Kurtz also noted that Leia was not to be

07:24Luke's sister. Instead, Luke's sister was going to be a completely different character who,

07:29interestingly, Lucas wasn't planning on introducing until Episode 8. Clearly, though,

07:34things changed when Lucas was developing the original trilogy, and if nothing else,

07:38we should all be thankful that the extended, more intimate version of their Empire Strikes

07:42Back kissing scene did not make the final cut. 3. Ray's Parentage

07:48The fact that the sequel trilogy didn't have a plan from the get-go meant that the movies didn't feel

07:53like a connected trilogy, rather that it felt that each entry was trying to make things up on the fly,

07:57which is exactly what happened. Along with those aforementioned Palpatine and Snoke retcons,

08:02this lack of planning was at its most evident with Ray's Parentage, which was not only retconned

08:06between movies, but was also being changed while those movies were in the midst of production.

08:12The identity of her parents was one of the biggest questions coming out of The Force Awakens,

08:15but all was revealed in The Last Jedi, where we learned that they were just filthy junk traders who

08:20had sold her for drinking money. However, The Rise of Skywalker flipped this script by claiming that she was

08:25actually Palpatine's granddaughter, but according to Daisy Ridley, even that wasn't set in stone

08:30until they were deep into production. It came to episode 9, and JJ pitched me the film and was like,

08:35oh yeah, Palpatine is granddaddy. I was like, awesome, and then two weeks later he was like,

08:40oh, actually we're not sure, so it kept changing. Even as we were filming, I wasn't sure what the

08:44answer was going to be. The actress also claims that the filmmakers were toying with an Obi-Wan

08:48connection at one point as well, before ultimately settling on The Last Jedi's nobody angle,

08:53and then changing their minds again whilst making The Rise of Skywalker. The entire sequel trilogy is

08:58about Rey and her journey of discovery, so the fact that Lucasfilm didn't have a plan for that

09:03journey is quite frankly ridiculous. 2. Han and Greedo's Shootout

09:08Now Harrison Ford might not give a damn about this, but the Han and Greedo who shot first debate has

09:14been one of the most contentious topics in the Star Wars fandom for the last several decades.

09:18The episode 4 scene in which our iconic smuggler is confronted by the bounty hunter has been subject

09:29to countless changes and re-edits over the years, each of them only adding more confusion to the

09:34situation than the last. In the original cut of the film, Han blasts Greedo away before the alien

09:39has a chance to react, emphasising the fact that Mr. Solo is quite the scoundrel and will do whatever

09:44it takes to survive. George Lucas, however, didn't want people to think that this lovable rogue was

09:48a cold-blooded killer, so he added a quick shot of Greedo firing first to justify Han's actions as

09:54being in self-defense. Now while having Greedo shoot first might seem like a small retcon,

09:59many fans feel that it weakened Han's turn from anti-hero to galactic savior, and that Han shot

10:04first is the definitive version of this scene. The makers of Solo A Star Wars Story agree with that

10:10sentiment as well, with the final confrontation between Han and Beckett being described as

10:14there can be no question that Han shoots first on the page.

10:191. Vader Being Luke's Father

10:21It's impossible to imagine the Star Wars saga playing out in any other way, but yes, indeed,

10:27quite possibly the biggest plot twist in cinematic history was actually retconned into existence,

10:32rather than being just planned out from the very beginning. A young Jedi named Darth Vader betrayed

10:37and murdered your father, states Obi-Wan in A New Hope, alluding to the fact that Luke's old man

10:42and Anakin Skywalker were originally two separate characters. Even when George Lucas came to hash

10:47out The Empire Strikes Back, this was still the case, with Lee Brackett's 1978 draft of the script

10:53featuring a scene where Luke meets his father, who is named Skywalker, and crucially, is not Vader.

10:58Sadly, Brackett passed away shortly after handing that draft in, and Lucas soon continued developing the

11:04story. It was during this time that Vader being Luke's daddy was added to the script, a twist so

11:09shocking that Lucas went to great lengths to keep it a secret, including telling the man in the suit,

11:13David Prowse, that the line was actually,

11:15Obi-Wan killed your father, and only adding in the real line in a post-production dub.

11:21Very sneaky indeed.

11:22And there we go, my friends. Those were the 10 biggest Star Wars retcons. I hope that you enjoyed

11:27that, and please let me know what you thought about it down in the comment section below.

11:30As always, I've been Jules, and you can go follow me over on Twitter at RetroJ, but the O

11:34is a zero, or you can swing by Instagram where it's the same handle, RetroJ, but the O

11:38is a zero. But before I go, I just want to say one thing. Hope you're treating yourself well with

11:43love and respect, my friend, because you deserve all of the best things out there, and do not let

11:47anything or anyone else tell you otherwise, alright? You are a massive legend. You deserve

11:51love, happiness, and success. And I want you to go out there and absolutely smash your life goals

11:55today. I believe in you. As always, I've been Jules, you have been awesome, never forget that,

12:00and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.

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