It’s an event that seems to happen in the “Star Wars” world about as often as Wookiees celebrate Life Day, and which fans await with just as much dread. New versions of George Lucas’s space-fantasy films are released, and with them come changes to the movies – alterations to audio and video, characters’ actions and even dialogue that is very different from what fans remember seeing in theaters a long time ago and far, far away.
So it goes for the latest editions of the six “Star Wars” live-action features that are being prepared for a Blu-ray home video release on Sept. 16. Previously, it was reported that the version of “Star Wars – Episode I: The Phantom Menace” included in this release would replace the puppet version of the Yoda character with a computer-generated creation. Then on Tuesday, an online report by Devin Faraci suggested a revelation almost as troubling as the news that Luke and Leia had been brother and sister all along: in a climactic scene from “Return of the Jedi,” when Darth Vader hurls the evil Emperor to his demise on the Death Star, he would now shout “No!” (In all previous versions of “Jedi,” Vader has committed this crucial deed in silence.)
On Wednesday, a press representative for Lucasfilm confirmed that this change will be included in the Blu-ray release, writing in an e-mail: “Yes — Darth says NO.”
Though it may sound like a minor detail among the millions in the “Star Wars” movies, this alteration has not sat well with many admirers of the film franchise. Among the angered fans is Simon Pegg, the “Shaun of the Dead” star and geek-culture icon, who wrote on his Twitter account that he always “loved Vader’s wordless self sacrifice” and called the change a “clueless revision.”