7 Directors Who Went To Extraordinary Lengths To Fix Past Mistakes

2. George Lucas Kept On Changing The Star Wars Trilogy

Han Shot First Star Wars
LucasFilm

There are no discernable mistakes in the original Star Wars trilogy, which stands as one of the finest cinematic trios ever made - but try telling that to George Lucas.

The man who created the saga is also the one who'd make things worse by trying to make things 'better' with multiple Special Editions, with an array of changes big and small over the years as he kept tinkering away. With a firm belief that the films weren't as good as they could and should be, due to budgetary contrasists and technological limitations, Lucas made the first significant changes with a re-release in 1997.

The most notable, of course, was having Greedo shoot before Han, and gradually over the years - further alterations were made in 2004, and again in 2011 - other irksome details were switched, such as Sebastian Shaw being replaced by Hayden Christensen, and Darth Vader yelling 'NOOOO' when killing the Emperor. Some were just baffling in how small and pointless they seemed, like adding some rocks in front of R2-D2.

Lucas put a lot of time and energy into creating these Special Editions, and even more into defending them after a backlash that still persists to this day.

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NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.