Changes in Star Wars re-releases

Changes in Star Wars re-releases vary from minor differences in color timing, audio mixing, and take choices to major insertions of new visual effects, additions of characters and dialogue, scene expansions, and replacement of original cast members with newer ones. Though changes were also made to the prequel trilogy, the original trilogy saw the most alteration. Dissatisfied with the original theatrical cuts of the original Star Wars film, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi, creator George Lucas altered the films in ways that were ostensibly not initially possible, primarily due to limitations of time, budget, and technology.

While changes to the Star Wars films had been made since the release of A New Hope in 1977, the first major changes were made in 1997 with the release of a Special Edition remaster in commemoration of the franchise's twentieth anniversary. These changes were largely made as visual effects tests for the forthcoming prequel films, demonstrating the possibilities of computer-generated imagery (CGI). Additional notable changes were made when the original trilogy was released on DVD in 2004, in an attempt to create more consistency with the prequel trilogy. More changes were made to the films for their Blu-ray release in 2011 and for their 4K Ultra HD release in 2019.

Although some critics felt that many smaller changes were improvements, innocuous, or understandable, most larger changes were received negatively by fans and critics—particularly those made to the original trilogy, which has never been released in its unaltered form in high definition.