George Lucas' 'Uncertainty' About Star Wars Went Away With Return Of The Jedi

Looking back from 2023 (and having seen just how big the "Star Wars" franchise would eventually grow), it's safe to say that George Lucas was onto something when he set out to film "Star Wars: A New Hope." Few franchises have made their way into so many hearts, and it's a testament to Lucas' vision that "A New Hope," now 45 years old, still has so much appeal today.

That being said, "Star Wars" was a pretty big swing. Without the benefit of hindsight, believing in the first movie inevitably required a leap of faith (even if Harrison Ford knew it would succeed from day one); working towards an entire trilogy was daunting. It's no wonder that Lucas found himself worried while working on "The Empire Strikes Back," the second entry in the original "Star Wars" trilogy. After all, the movie's production costs ballooned, placing the writer in a pretty tough spot financially — Lucas even put himself at risk of personal bankruptcy to finish the project.

Luckily, everything worked out for "The Empire Strikes Back": the movie was such a big hit that Lucas could pay back the borrowed money with relative ease (fittingly via Empire Online). Plus, while the experience was undoubtedly stressful, the second "Star Wars" movie's success gave Lucas a great deal of confidence as he set his sights on creating "Return of the Jedi."

As exciting as it is to start a daring new project, there's a certain level of relief when it's met with success. In an interview that would eventually lead to "The Making of Return of the Jedi," an official behind-the-scenes book, Lucas admitted that the "Star Wars" franchise's successful history made the third film less stressful to work on:

"The biggest issue was, could we actually do a sequel, could we actually finance ourselves and do it? We'd proved we could [when creating 'The Empire Strikes Back'], so now it was just a matter of doing it again. And the second one had done really well, so we knew the third one would do really well. By then a lot of the uncertainty had been taken out of the process. And the second one had the problem of having no beginning and no end. [...] This one at least would have an end, a lot of story points would be closed up, so no matter what, I knew it would be interesting to people. That took a little of the edge of it off."

It's great that Lucas was confident after working on "The Empire Strikes Back," but if anything, it's easy to see how he could've felt relatively nervous afterward. The second "Star Wars" film set some pretty high stakes and established that nothing was off the table: Luke's parentage was a big twist, and the fact that the film ended on a low point for the rebellion (with one main character out of commission and another suffering a significant injury) showed just how hopeless things could be in a galaxy far, far away. "The Empire Strikes Back" would be a tough act to follow.

Still, Lucas' confidence never wavered. With less pressure to figure out logistics (the story had been planned ahead of time, though a much darker alternate ending was briefly considered), the writer could relax while working on the third movie's screenplay. The final product shone as a result.

Most of "Return of the Jedi" built steam as loose ends were tied up (sorry, I'm not including the initial clash with the Ewoks here), but there were enough twists to keep things feeling fresh. Anyone who watched the first two movies could tell you that a big clash between Luke, Vader, and Palpatine was inevitable, yet the last-minute twist was both satisfying and genuinely surprising.

Likewise, "Return of the Jedi" was a fitting end to the original "Star Wars" trilogy: it kept up the second entry's knack for unexpected, believable plot developments, gave us plenty of flashy action scenes, and, above all else, was a lot of fun. Sure, "Return of the Jedi" wasn't perfect (case in point, the creepy Jabba the Hutt ordeal), but it had massive shoes to fill. Lucas' newfound confidence ensured that it could rise to the occasion.