Return of the Jedi's Ending Was Originally On Coruscant: Why Lucas Changed It
The action-packed finale of Return of the Jedi originally took place on Coruscant, but George Lucas and Richard Marquand ultimately changed it. The concept of a planet-wide city was initially planned for Return of the Jedi, but the world that would become Coruscant didn’t debut until the 1991 Expanded Universe (now Legends) novel, Heir to the Empire, and would later make its first on-screen appearance in the 1997 special edition of Return of the Jedi. Coruscant became a key location in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. As the capital of the Galactic Republic in a trilogy that showed its transformation into the Galactic Empire, Coruscant had a strong presence in each prequel film. Coruscant’s original name, Had Abbadon, was repurposed in the Legends continuity, as is often the case for unused concepts in the Star Wars franchise.
In addition to being the capital of both the Republic and the Empire, Coruscant also housed the headquarters of the old Jedi Order. To visually symbolize that the order had lost its way in the era of the prequel trilogy, the Jedi Temple was a massive ivory tower in a city that encompassed a whole planet. The Jedi and the Force represent nature while the dark side of the Force and the Sith Order are typically associated with advanced technology and unnatural abilities, so the former’s sheltered location showed how far they strayed from their connection to the Force. The Legends-era New Jedi Order began on the jungle moon of Yavin IV and later the forested planet Ossus. When the Jedi Order was restored in canon, its minimalist academy was built on an unidentified forested planet.
The Forest Moon of Endor was the setting of Return of the Jedi’s finale, with Rebel and Imperial space forces battling on and in orbit of the moon. The natural vs unnatural theme of the Star Wars saga was expressed through the seemingly primitive Ewoks helping the Rebels defeat the technologically and numerically superior Imperial troops. The easily-underestimated Ewoks made full use of their familiarity with the terrain, exceptional physical strength, and repurposed Gorax traps to hold off both the fully armored stormtroopers and their lethal AT-ST scout walkers. Meanwhile, Return of the Jedi’s most powerful moments were depicted aboard the Death Star II, where Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader’s character arcs conclude in an emotional lightsaber duel. While a crowd-pleasing conclusion to the original trilogy, Return of the Jedi’s finale nearly took place on the Empire’s capital world, making for a much larger scale battle.
The ecumenopolis capital of the Galactic Empire was initially called Had Abbadon, and an early story treatment of Return of the Jedi would have had it feature two partially-constructed Death Stars, as well as a forested moon called “Jus-Endor.” While these ideas were eventually retooled into the familiar finale of Return of the Jedi, the concept of the Empire being headquartered on a planet whose entire terrain is a sprawling cityscape remained. In-universe, the planet originally known as Had Abbadon was called Imperial Center throughout the reign of the Empire. Ralph McQuarrie’s stunning concept art of the planet captured the imaginations of future Star Wars creators as well, and thus Imperial Center made its debut in Heir to the Empire, now as the capital of the New Republic five years after the Battle of Endor. Timothy Zahn gave the world a proper name as well: Coruscant.
Based on both its Ralph McQuarrie concept art and Legends descriptions, Imperial Center was added into the ending of Return of the Jedi via its 1997 special edition, and when it appeared for an extended role in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, it was referred to as Coruscant instead of Had Abbadon to maintain consistency between the Star Wars films and Legends content. Coruscant nearly appeared in the sequel trilogy as well, with plans for the First Order to destroy the planet with Starkiller Base’s superweapon in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The filmmakers ultimately replaced Coruscant with a similar world, Hosnian Prime.
The original finale for Return of the Jedi would have taken place on a city planet, a forest moon, and included two partially-completed Death Star stations, making it far more visually complicated and potentially expensive for the film. Even with Lucasfilm’s budget and at-the-time sophisticated special effects, the original finale was likely too complicated to put on film. Elements of the original finale remained, however, as the Forest Moon of Endor was still a key locale in the film’s final battle and the two partially-completed Death Stars were reduced to only one. Rather than use McQuarrie’s concept of the Emperor’s lava-filled, subterranean throne room, the final script had Palpatine aboard the Second Death Star, overlooking the space battle in orbit of Endor.
Had Return of the Jedi stuck with its original finale, a Rebel victory would have been far more complicated. With two Death Stars, whose superweapons would likely have still been operational, the Rebels would endure far greater losses in space. Additionally, the shield generator might have been on Jus-Endor for one station and Had Abbadon for the other, necessitating urban warfare on the Galactic Empire’s capital world to disable one of the shields. While unlikely due to a lack of manpower, the Rebels might have commandeered one Death Star to destroy another, perhaps disabling the hijacked battlestation afterward.
Although the Return of the Jedi finale was changed, elements of its original concept found their way into other parts of the Star Wars franchise. Had Abbadon appeared canonically in the Legends-era Star Wars: Legacy comics, but rather than being a city planet in the Core Worlds, the planet was in the treacherous Deep Core region and was shown to have natural terrain. The original concept of Palpatine’s throne room was repurposed in Star Wars: The Last Jedi as the throne room of First Order Supreme Leader Snoke aboard the Supremacy. While Return of the Jedi ultimately had a much tamer finale than originally planned, Coruscant and other elements of its original third act went on to appear throughout the rest of the Star Wars franchise.