Return of the Jedi had to use two fake titles for practicality reasons after the popularity of Star Wars skyrocketed in the 80s.
The original Star Wars trilogy remains one of the most popular pieces of fictional media. The original trilogy concluded with Return of the Jedi, which saw Luke Skywalker and his friends defeat the Empire and the former redeemed his father. However, the iconic film had to operate under an entirely different title.
Return of the Jedi marked the conclusion of the original Star Wars trilogy (Credit: Lucasfilm).
During an interview, the film’s production designer Jim Bloom revealed why the third installment in the trilogy underwent a title change. Bloom explained how the franchise’s popularity pose logistical issues to the final installment of the original trilogy and here why the film was produced under a different title.
Return of the Jedi Had to Film Under a False Title For One Messed-up Reason
Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi was directed by Richard Marquand and flew into theaters on May 25, 1983. It was the final installment of George Lucas‘ original trilogy of movies in the space opera franchise and emerged as a commercial success.
In the documentary Empire of Dreams, production designer Jim Bloom revealed that the third movie was produced under the faux title Blue Harvest: Horror Beyond Imagination. Bloom explained that the franchise’s popularity resulted in the production being charged heavily at various places.
The idea behind it was a title that would instill absolutely no interest whatsoever.
Bloom made the above statement, highlighting how the unremarkable title distanced the film from the popularity of Star Wars and helped Lucasfilm save some money.
The production designer added that the false title worked well until the main cast comprising, Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher showed up on the sets. As a result, the title of Blue Harvest was no longer fooling anyone and people found out that the third Star Wars movie was in production.
Return of the Jedi Also Had Another Working Title That Is Far More Infamous
While portions of Return of the Jedi were filmed under the unremarkable title of Blue Harvest, the film’s actual title was originally going to be much different. According to Lawrence Kasdan, Return of the Jedi was a weak title, which prompted Lucas to opt for Revenge of the Jedi.
George Lucas admitted Return of the Jedi was always the intended title (Credit: AMC).
In the book Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays by film historian Laurent Bouzereau, Lucas explained that Revenge of the Jedi was also never meant to be the intended title for the movie.
We called the film Revenge of the Jedi to throw people off.
Lucas made the above statement (via Den of Geek), explaining his decision to change the title so that the media and press attention the production was receiving would be reduced, preventing anything from getting leaked in advance.
However, some of the early promotional material bore the title Revenge of the Jedi, which was eventually changed to Return of the Jedi just a few months before the movie’s release. As a result, Revenge of the Jedi remains the more infamous of the two false titles Lucasfilm used to protect the move from any unexpected leaks.
The Star Wars movies are streaming on Disney+
