In earlier drafts the Forest Moon of Endor was supposed to be the sanctuary moon of Coruscant the last bit of nature from Coruscant preserved on its moon. In the film there’s even a line of dialogue with Palpatine calling the “sanctuary moon.”

I think this was scrapped over concerns about not being able to depict Coruscant satisfyingly.

I honestly didn't mind having a second Death Star. It was doing it AGAIN ON STEROIDS with Starkiller Base that killed it for me.

"We don't need to see the Death Star twice"

Let alone three times!

Visiting Tatooine again is repetitive, yes, but returning to Tatooine in ROTJ fulfills a checkbox in the "hero's journey" formula, where the hero returns home after the adventure, but is now wise, skilled and experienced.  

As for Coruscant, I agree it would have been a much cooler setting - but probably very difficult to pull off in 1983.  I imagine it would look similar to Blade Runner.  

I feel like the main problem with ROTJ is not so much the overall story structure, but it really mostly just comes down to the aggressive blandness of Endor as a setting.  It's like this boring forest in California, and they spend SO much time there.  It also doesn't help that once they get captured by the Ewoks, the movie just completely slows to a crawl. The small Imperial base with the shield generator is also visually boring.  Something more like the larger base in Rogue One would have been nice.  Plus, throughout the entire fight on Endor, it always feels like Han, Leia and Chewie are the ONLY rebels there, since the camera barely ever shows any other Rebel fighters doing anything.  We don't see any other rebels get killed or anything.  I think if the whole Endor sequence could have been trimmed down, streamlined, and made visually more interesting, the movie would really be elevated.  (Also replace Ewoks with Wookies, obviously.)

“Okay, so for our next change I am going to cut the entire movie “

I agree with a lot of points in this, although I'll say that from a 1983 perspective, having a return trip to Tattooine and a second Death Star didn't feel quite so unnecessary. There was almost no way for a regular person to watch the original Star Wars at that time, so revisiting some of that iconography was, I think, a more natural thing to do, and that style of repetition I believe was more common at that time. I was only seven years old, but I was totally into it lol

"I'll meet you at the rendezvous point on Tatooine" It's already established that the group are heading out to rescue Han from Jabba and Boba Fett at the end of The Empire Strikes Back

What's interesting about this is that some of your ideas were actually already in the original script for Return of the Jedi. The final battle was going to take place on Coruscant, including the throne room scene. This is why the final movie keeps referring to Endor as a "sanctuary moon", because it was originally a forest-planet that orbited the city-planet of Coruscant. I also like the flashbacks idea. If we had that, Vader's face reveal would have had more of an impact, as we would see the face of the man in the flashbacks when Vader takes off his mask.

...while we are at it...let's cut out that Leia is Luke's sister, and that whole kissing cousins scene...

I wanted to see Admiral Ackbar eat live fish.

Great video, I love hearing others' ideas and opinions on these films :)

I agree with most of this. But there is something satisfying about the Throne Room scene being in space. The second Death Star is okay because the internal conflict is the main focus, not the external. Plus flying through the Death Star is awesome.

I'd make return of the jedi an immediate sequel to the empire strikes back, taking place just a few days afterwards. We could see the rebel alliance gathering thsir various cells from across the galaxy for an assault on coruscant in the wake of their recent defeat on hoth, and Luke's experience with his father would be fresh in his mind. The empire would be greatly weakened from it's position in A New Hope due to constant rebel activity, and the alliance could be gearing up for a final strike to put an end to the war once and for all. The scene on tatooine would be shortened and not include leia in her skimpy outfit, and the ewoks would be replaced with coruscant residents standing up to the empire (could make for some equally humorous scenes). I like the idea of luke questioning his confidence throughout the movie in the wake of his defeat at the hands of vader - he would eventually overcome it after the mission on tatooine, his continued training with Yoda, and finally the confrontation on coruscant. The movie's tone can still be light, with plenty of humor, but it will be balanced with drama in the form of Luke's character development and Vader's flashbacks.

Much of what you said is actually what Lucas planned but didn’t have the budget for and then after that it was going to be Wookiees and a battle over Kashyyyk again lack of technology.

6:41 yes, let’s start off a Star Wars film with 20 minutes of dialogue about denying a rescue mission, because that’s what makes a great kids adventure film. And why would Jabba not be on Tatooine?

Your version sounds really good. I wish they'd done that version.

ROTJ was designed to sell merch.  I like all the new characters/species introduced in Jabba's Palace. Especially since they have become more prevalent in side stories like Clone Wars and Rebels.

I've spent my whole life thinking about this very topic.  But I always had it be the Rebels final stand in the space above their new base, again on a forest planet because that gives them better cover.  Also Han needs to lead the space battle coming full circle to fighting for completely non selfish reasons.

I think your change ideas are spot on!  I love thinking about what could've been.

I also think Lucas’s original plan to not make Leia Luke’s sister and to have Luke shown at the end of the movie wandering off to find his sister to be a much more satisfying ending.