"Luke, I am your father... but not until the second draft."
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00:00 So with a franchise as expansive and long-running as Star Wars, it was inevitable that its lore
00:05 would become increasingly muddled as time went on. And that contradictory information
00:10 is a common sight in pop culture's favorite galaxy. As I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com
00:15 and these are the 10 Biggest Star Wars Retcons.
00:18 10. Anakin's Younger Force Ghost
00:22 Now the numerous changes that George Lucas has made to his original trilogy over the
00:26 years have been met with a controversial reception by many Star Wars fans. And though a bunch
00:31 of them are fairly minor and inconsequential, like Darth Vader getting his eyebrows shaved
00:36 off, others are a lot more questionable.
00:39 Speaking of Vader's eyebrows, Return of the Jedi's original ending saw the owner
00:42 of those bushy decorations, Sebastian Shaw, appear before Luke as a Force Ghost - a great
00:48 moment that really solidified Vader's redemption. However, in the 2004 DVD release of the original
00:53 trilogy, Lucas decided to swap out the old Anakin for his younger counterpart, replacing
00:58 Shaw's sweet smile with Hayden Christensen's rather creepy stare, in a change that is not
01:03 only a huge visual retcon, but seemingly contradicts everything we've learned about Force Ghosts
01:08 throughout the franchise.
01:10 Force Ghosts in other movies, like Luke in The Rise of Skywalker, Yoda in The Last Jedi,
01:14 Obi-Wan in The Empire Strikes Back, look like the characters at the time of their deaths.
01:19 So for Anakin to de-age a couple of decades felt like nothing more than a cheap way to
01:23 hype Revenge of the Sith up, which was due in cinemas less than a year after the DVD's
01:28 release.
01:29 9. The Age of the Republic
01:31 Now this one may not be as noticeable as other entries on our list, but it's still a fairly
01:35 big retcon that confuses the history of the Old Republic. In A New Hope, Alec Guinness's
01:41 grizzled Ben Kenobi says that the Old Republic existed for over a thousand generations, which
01:46 was interpreted by various expanded universe sources as meaning roughly 25,000 years. However,
01:52 skip ahead to the release of Attack of the Clones, and here Palpatine mentions that the
01:56 Republic has stood for over a thousand years, which, as you can tell, is pretty far removed
02:01 from the 25,000 years suggested by Kenobi's line.
02:05 While the expanded universe is no longer canon, the question of which version of events is
02:10 true has been hotly debated by Star Wars fans. 2020's The Star Wars Book did clear the
02:15 air somewhat by claiming that the Old Republic was founded over 25,000 years prior to A New
02:20 Hope, but that only made Palpatine's Attack of the Clones retcon even more of a head-scratcher.
02:25 8. Darth Maul's Resurrection
02:29 Now as you might expect, not all retcons are bad. Some can actually shed new light on prior
02:34 events, take a story in a more interesting direction, or - as is the case of Darth Maul's
02:38 unlikely return to the Land of the Living - give fans far more time with a character
02:42 that they loved. When George Lucas was crafting his grand return to the Star Wars universe
02:46 in 1999's The Phantom Menace, this devilish character was intended to be killed off for
02:51 good, something Lucas made very clear with the image of Maul's bisected body falling
02:55 down one of those ridiculously long Star Wars shafts.
02:59 However, after developing Maul's brother Savage Opress through the Clone Wars animated
03:03 series, Lucas became much more interested in Maul, and, feeling that he was rather underutilized
03:08 in his sole movie appearance, decided to resurrect him.
03:11 Seriously, Dave Filoni responded to this idea by saying "It's over. He's cut in half.
03:16 How does that work?" only for Lucas to bluntly reply "I dunno. Figure it out."
03:21 Retconning Maul's death made him even more of a fan favorite than he already was, and
03:25 with the villain even returning to the big screen in 2018's Solo, there's always a
03:29 chance that he might appear in another Star Wars project down the line.
03:33 7. Leia's memory of her mother
03:36 Now, the prequels retroactively caused several problems with the original trilogy, with certain
03:41 bits of information, like the fact that R2-D2 can apparently fly as a scene in Attack of
03:45 the Clones, which works against the events of Lucas' first three movies.
03:48 And one of the most confusing of these revolves around Princess Leia's connection to her
03:52 mother, Padme Amidala.
03:54 In Return of the Jedi, Leia tells Luke that she remembers her real mother, proceeding
03:58 to describe her as "beautiful" and "kind, but sad", implying that she'd spent at least
04:03 a little bit of time with her.
04:04 However, in Revenge of the Sith, Padme dies immediately after giving birth, so how could
04:08 Leia have spent any time with her at all?
04:11 Though plenty of explanations for this have been bandied around for years, such as Leia's
04:15 force ability allowing her to "sense" Padme, the fact of the matter is that George
04:18 Lucas didn't know Leia's mother was going to die in childbirth while writing Return
04:22 of the Jedi, making Padme's untimely end a retcon of Leia's memories.
04:28 6. The origin of the Death Star's weakness
04:31 The fact that the Rebel Alliance was able to discover and exploit the Death Star's
04:35 weakness in A New Hope always felt a little improbable, as did the fact that the Empire's
04:40 planet-killing battle station had such a catastrophic defect in the first place.
04:44 It obviously wasn't a plot hole or anything like that, but it just felt a wee bit too
04:48 convenient.
04:49 Not that the Rebels would care, with Luke's precisely aimed proton torpedoes granting
04:52 them an unprecedented victory over a much stronger enemy.
04:56 But in 2016's Rogue One A Star Wars Story, this particular plot point received a most
05:01 welcome retcon, with the revelation that the Death Star's weakness wasn't as random
05:05 as it seemed and had actually been put there by its architect.
05:08 Is this what George Lucas had planned all the way back in 1977?
05:12 Probably not, but as with Maul's resurrection, this is another example of a good retcon,
05:17 since the idea of the weakness being planted by Mads Mikkelsen's conflicted engineer
05:21 is a way more compelling one than it being just an unintentional design flaw.
05:26 5. Somehow Palpatine returned
05:30 Now though The Last Jedi left audiences divided over the direction of Disney's Star Wars
05:34 sequels, the revelation that Emperor Palpatine was set to return for The Rise of Skywalker
05:38 was exciting for fans of all ages.
05:41 But unfortunately though, the explanation for how Palp survived his 'death' in Return
05:45 of the Jedi was lazy at best, with Poe Dameron's line of 'somehow Palpatine returned' serving
05:50 as the movie's only attempt to fill in the blanks.
05:53 Clearly the writers found it difficult to come up with a decent explanation, and that's
05:57 probably because Palpatine was never intended to return from the grave, despite what Kathleen
06:01 Kennedy might tell you.
06:02 George Lucas actually shot down the idea of a Palpatine return whilst making Episode 6,
06:08 bluntly telling the actor 'no, he's dead'.
06:10 In addition, Colin Trevorrow, who was originally attached to direct The Rise of Skywalker,
06:15 has said that 'bringing back Palpatine was something I never considered', meaning
06:18 that the Sith Lord's comeback wasn't added until the new team decided to board the project
06:23 in 2017.
06:25 Retconning Palpatine's death then forced The Rise of Skywalker to retcon Snoke's
06:28 entire character. In the first two movies, he was clearly meant to be someone new with
06:32 a mysterious agenda of his own, not just a puppet that was grown in a jar.
06:37 4. Luke and Leia are siblings
06:40 With the hindsight of Episodes 6 to 9, it's always a little odd to go back and watch that
06:45 infamous kiss between Luke and Leia in Episode 5, as well as their quick little peck before
06:49 swinging over that shaft in Episode 4. With the pair being revealed as siblings in the
06:54 final chapter of the original trilogy, it's a tad uncomfortable to see them playing tonsil
06:58 tennis in the first two movies. But, to be fair to everyone involved, that familial bond
07:03 was not on the cards when A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back were being written.
07:07 In 1999, original Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz discussed George Lucas' initial plans
07:12 for the Star Wars saga, which were outlined in the 1970s. As well as revealing that Han
07:17 Solo was supposed to die in Return of the Jedi, a plot point that Harrison Ford would
07:21 have definitely been chuffed to hear, Kurtz also noted that Leia was not to be Luke's
07:25 sister. Instead, Luke's sister was going to be a completely different character who,
07:29 interestingly, Lucas wasn't planning on introducing until Episode 8.
07:33 Sadly though, things changed when Lucas was developing the original trilogy, and if nothing
07:37 else, we should all be thankful that the extended, more intimate version of their Empire Strikes
07:42 Back kissing scene did not make the final cut.
07:45 3. Rey's Parentage
07:48 The fact that the sequel trilogy didn't have a plan from the get-go meant that the
07:51 movies didn't feel like a connected trilogy, rather that it felt that each entry was trying
07:56 to make things up on the fly, which is exactly what happened. Along with those aforementioned
08:00 Palpatine and Snoke retcons, this lack of planning was at its most evident with Rey's
08:05 parentage, which was not only retconned between movies, but was also being changed while those
08:09 movies were in the midst of production.
08:11 The identity of her parents was one of the biggest questions coming out of The Force
08:15 Awakens, but all was revealed in The Last Jedi, where we learned that they were just
08:19 filthy junk traders who had sold her for drinking money. However, the rise of Skywalker flipped
08:23 this script by claiming that she was actually Palpatine's granddaughter, but according
08:27 to Daisy Ridley, even that wasn't set in stone until they were deep into production.
08:32 It came to episode 9, and JJ pitched me the film and was like "Oh yeah, Palpatine is
08:36 granddaddy". I was like "Awesome", and then two weeks later he was like "Oh, actually
08:40 we're not sure", so it kept changing. Even as we were filming, I wasn't sure what
08:43 the answer was going to be.
08:45 The actress also claims that the filmmakers were toying with an Obi-Wan connection at
08:49 one point as well, before ultimately settling on The Last Jedi's "nobody" angle, and
08:53 then changing their minds again whilst making The Rise of Skywalker.
08:57 The entire sequel trilogy is about Rey and her journey of discovery, so the fact that
09:01 Lucasfilm didn't have a plan for that journey is quite frankly ridiculous.
09:05 2. Han and Greedo's Shootout
09:09 Harrison Ford might not give a damn about this, but the Han and Greedo "Who Shot First?"
09:13 debate has been one of the most contentious topics in the Star Wars fandom for the last
09:17 several decades.
09:24 The Episode 4 scene in which our iconic smuggler is confronted by the bounty hunter has been
09:28 subject to countless changes and re-edits over the years, each of them only adding more
09:33 confusion to the situation than the last. In the original cut of the film, Han blasts
09:37 Greedo away before the alien has a chance to react, emphasising the fact that Mr Solo
09:41 is quite the scoundrel and will do whatever it takes to survive. George Lucas, however,
09:46 didn't want people to think that this lovable rogue was a cold-blooded killer, so he added
09:50 a quick shot of Greedo firing first to justify Han's actions as being in self-defence.
09:55 Now while having Greedo shoot first might seem like a small retcon, many fans feel that
09:59 it weakened Han's turn from anti-hero to galactic saviour, and that "Han shot first"
10:04 is the definitive version of this scene. The makers of Solo A Star Wars Story agree with
10:09 that sentiment as well, with the final confrontation between Han and Beckett being described as
10:14 "there can be no question that Han shoots first on the page".
10:18 At number 1, Vader being Luke's father.
10:22 It's impossible to imagine the Star Wars saga playing out in any other way, but yes,
10:26 indeed, quite possibly the biggest plot twist in cinematic history was actually retconned
10:31 into existence, rather than being just planned out from the very beginning. "A young Jedi
10:35 named Darth Vader betrayed and murdered your father," states Obi-Wan in A New Hope, alluding
10:40 to the fact that Luke's old man and Anakin Skywalker were originally two separate characters.
10:46 Even when George Lucas came to hash out the Empire Strikes Back, this was still the case,
10:50 with Lee Brackett's 1978 draft of the script featuring a scene where Luke meets his father,
10:54 who is named Skywalker, and crucially, is not Vader. Sadly, Brackett passed away shortly
11:00 after handing that draft in, and Lucas soon continued developing the story.
11:04 It was during this time that Vader being Luke's daddy was added to the script, a twist so
11:08 shocking that Lucas went to great lengths to keep it a secret, including telling the
11:12 man in the suit, David Prowse, that the line was actually "Obi-Wan killed your father",
11:17 and only adding in the real line in a post-production dub. Very sneaky indeed.
11:21 And there we go, my friends, those were the 10 biggest Star Wars retcons. I hope that
11:26 you enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down in the comments
11:29 section below. As always, I've been Jules, and you can go follow me over on Twitter @RetroJay
11:33 but the O is a zero, or you can swing by Instagram where it's the same handle, RetroJay but
11:38 the O is a zero.
11:40 But before I go, I just want to say one thing. Hope you're treating yourself well with
11:43 love and respect, my friend, because you deserve all of the best things out there and do not
11:46 let anything or anyone else tell you otherwise, alright? You are a massive legend, you deserve
11:50 love, happiness, and success. And I want you to go out there and absolutely smash your
11:54 life goals today. I believe in you.
11:57 As always, I've been Jules, you have been awesome, never forget that, and I'll speak
12:00 to you soon. Bye.
12:02 [BLANK_AUDIO]