15 Huge Controversies That Rocked Star Wars

11. The Digital Re-Release Changes

If you weren't paying attention, George Lucas liked to show that George Lucas could do precisely what George Lucas wanted to do with Star Wars over the years.

Most infamously of all, that meant he happily chopped at - and "improved" is original trilogy on two separate occasions, seemingly just because he could. Given how precious they are about even suggested changes to future film lore in their favourite franchises, retroactive deletion and addition went down like a lead balloon with Star Wars fans.

The first round of changes came in 1997 for the 20th anniversary re-release of the original trilogy and then Lucas tinkered again in 2004, partly to tie the prequel trilogy to the original films more closely. Which meant poor Sebastien Shaw was jettisoned to accommodate Hayden Christensen's Force ghost.

Lucas always maintained the changes were improvements, but that's very much a bone of contention, and it set a dangerous precedent from a fan's point of view.