Return of the Jedi wasn’t just the end of a trilogy, it was the beginning of a new way of filmmaking.
During a panel at Star Wars Celebration in London, Star Wars creatives discussed the influence of this 40-year-old film on the most recent Star Wars projects.
“For all of our new films now, I always try to add that new component of something new,” said Lucasfilm executive creative director, Doug Chiang. “Star Wars design is very defined in terms of that box that George [Lucas] created but within that box, there’s a lot of freedom, and I love to push the envelope in terms of what that box is.”
When it comes to the look and feel of recent Star Wars projects, it’s obvious where much of their inspiration has come from. You only have to look at The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett to see how influential Return of the Jedi has been on modern creative processes.
The reason? It’s all about building on what came before. “The thing I took away from it was just how many creatures, how many practical elements, how many of those moments George gave to me,” said ILM SVP creative innovation, Rob Bredow. “The other films have them, but Return has so much more – it was just an absolute treat to see all this work people have done.”
On a practical level, modern Star Wars projects have built upon the technologies used by those early innovators… and we were shown a pre-vis of the iconic Endor speeder bike chase, which was created by Dennis Muren, using Kenner action figures to plan out the sequence in its entirety.
“The technologies have advanced at hyperspeed since then,” said Bredow. “But the teams that did that work – we pulled some of the early creatives they did. They were using the latest technology.”
Of course, pre-vis techniques have come a long way. Today, The Mandalorian uses partial CG renders to plan out the action sequences. But in many ways, it’s the same, utilizing models to create a plan of how those scenes should look.
According to panel host Ming-Na Wen, who plays Fennec Shand on The Mandalorian, it helps actors get to grips with their scenes before they shoot.
“It’s the same techniques,” she said. “You’re trying to work out the story and then you’re trying to work out the techniques. It really helps us as actors to see how it’ll look on screen.”
The look is ultimately what it’s all about. One of the things The Mandalorian has long been praised for is how really feels like an old-school Star Wars project. That’s all down to Lucasfilm’s approach of building on the past.
“Norman Reynolds established the look,” said Chiang. “We’re building upon these legends. We’re trying to create images that live up to their legacy.”
Although film-making techniques have developed a lot since 1983, it’s Lucasfilm’s use of practical effects that really sings.
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“Even to this day, we have our Grogu and that’s practical,” said Wen. “It lends itself to the realism of having someone or something there to react to. It just gives it content.”
Going back to when the likes of Phil Tippett were inventing the techniques used to bring Jabba and other creatures to life in Return of the Jedi, it was clearly an innovative time. “They haven’t got a clue what they were doing,” said Lucasfilm’s creature supervisor, Neal Scanlan. “Every day was a new day for them. It was a time of invention and learning from your mistakes. A really innovative and creative time. I find such huge inspiration from how brave they were. It is a really fascinating and wonderful period.”
Ultimately, modern Star Wars projects are looking to build out the galaxy far, far away, paying homage to the original trilogy as well as creating something new and unique. That couldn’t be more obvious than in The Book of Boba Fett.
“A lot of the fun we had was that we could build upon Return of the Jedi,” said Chiang. “It established such a lot of iconic places like Jabba’s palace… we had the opportunity to visit the kitchen, Boba’s bedroom, the hangar… We were basically building upon what we had seen and loved so much. I hope we get more opportunity to do more of that.”
Return of the Jedi returns to cinemas soon to celebrate its 40th anniversary. Want to read more about Star Wars? Check out who has been cast as Grand Admiral Thrawn in the upcoming Ahsoka series and get up to speed with everything that’s been announced at Star Wars Celebration so far.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
