Did You Know…? Scripts with Deleted ROTJ Dialogue
Did you know… deleted scenes from Return of the Jedi involving additional dialogue in the climactic Death Star battle appeared in the novelisation by James Kahn, and in an abbreviated form in the Marvel comic adaptation? Back in 2004 SWNZ ran a series of interview articles with actor Gerald Home, where he shared his original script pages from these scenes, revealing the lines shared between the Mon Calamari officer/aid the Home played, and Admiral Ackbar.
Read our original articles in full, here;
- Part One – Tales of the lost Calamari
- Part Two – ‘Revenge of the Jedi’ call sheets
- Part Three – The missing ‘Revenge’ dialogue revealed
The deleted scenes have the anonymous Mon Cal officer (listed in the scripts as “aid”, as distinct from the call sheets wherein his role is described as “officer/controller/aide” or “officer/controller”) providing tactical commentary to Ackbar, in between his attendance to unspecified generic control panels of lights and switches. Interestingly, although the detail of these scenes didn’t make it through to the released version of ‘Jedi’, a lot of the essence remains. Gerald’s announcement, in scene 125A, that “the shield around the Death Star has lost power” is, of course, a crucial plot element. That line is later substituted by a similar one from Ackbar: “The shield is down! Commence attack on the Death Star’s main reactor”.
Read more of Gerald Home’s explanation of these scenes here.
