It’s been nearly three decades since the release of Return Of The Jedi but new footage is still being uncovered. Some “Lost” Star Wars footage was recently discovered on a rare and expensive LaserDisc.
According to the Verge , the LaserDisc was included in an eBay sale for a vintage 80s editing system. The buyer discovered that the LaserDisc contained some rare footage from Return of the Jedi. The blooper reel contains flubbed lines, falling Storm Troopers and some footage of R2-D2 repairing a damaged X-wing.
It’s unclear where the LaserDisc came from but Geekologie notes that the footage was purchased for $699 on eBay.
A Facebook page dedicated to the footage notes that more than 30 minutes was uncovered on the LaserDisc. The first 15 minutes or so have been uploaded to the internet while the rest will be uploaded later today.
The Facebook page reads : “Historic Star Wars-related artifact of a now dead pre-Avid/Final Cut Pro computerized editing system developed by Lucasfilm which quaintly/wackily used multiple laserdiscs to cue up edits in a ill-conceived, overly-complex, bug-ridden system. One of Lucas’ few commercial flops (you might call this the “Howard The Duck” of editing systems). This is a generic Scotch Videodisc with computer printed label was used to demonstrate the EditDroid system which was debuted at the NAB show in Las Vegas in 1984. Now here’s the amazing part for you Star Wars freaks out there… Approximately 30 minutes of unedited raw, unsweetened work print takes in letterbox format of scene 50 (Luke on Dagobah with Yoda) from “Return of The Jedi” were used – NEVER OFFICIAL RELEASED MATERIAL. Slates, people yelling action, multiple takes of the same scenes of Luke and Yoda…”
Here’s the “lost” Star Wars footage.
Here’s another clip featuring Yoda.
The lost Star Wars footage is available for free at the moment but don’t be too surprised of LucasFilms gets the footage pulled from the internet. After all, wouldn’t this make a great edition to a future blu-ray release?