Most of the Star Wars films are known and loved for their action packed, multi-threaded, climactic ending sequences. In Return of the Jedi, there was a large space attack happening above the forest moon of Endor, along with an epic duel between Father and Son with lightsabers and taunting by an evil menace. The battle above Endor was paired with a battle on the surface of the planet that succeeded due to the brave actions of the Rebel Alliance soldiers (and those pesky Ewoks.) Had any one of these battles gone in favor of the Empire, the galaxy might have been a very different place in the following years.
OUTSIDE THE BUNKER
In the theatrical version of the film, there’s a great scene where Han Solo tricks a scout trooper into chasing him around the bunker entrance and into the arms of the Rebels in waiting. If you watch the final frames of this shot closely, you can see one of the commandos putting his gun down before the film cuts away to the next scene. He does this because he is about to don the captured trooper’s uniform, but we never got to see it happen. After the “rebel scum” are captured and escorted outside to the waiting Imperial troops, look in the crowd as the camera pans across the forest. If you look closely you will once again see the rebel soldier right there in broad daylight with his hands on helmetless head, but still in the trooper armor. If you look closely, when the rebels are first entering the bunker, you can see the rebel/trooper move into position outside to stand guard.
Here’s the relevant passage from the Return of the Jedi novelization:
Back at the bunker, the last scout was undone. Subdued by Chewbacca, bound, stripped of his suit, he was being carried into the woods now by two other members of the strike team. The rest of the squad silently crouched, forming a perimeter around the entrance.
Han stood at the door, checking the stolen code against the digits on the bunker’s control panel. With natural speed, he punched a series of buttons on the panel. Silently, the door opened.
Leia peeked inside. No sign of life. She motioned the others, and entered the bunker. Han and Chewie followed close on her heels. Soon the entire team was huddled inside the otherwise empty steel corridor, leaving one lookout outside, dressed in the unconscious scout’s uniform. Han pushed a series of buttons on the inner panel, closing the door behind them.
INSIDE THE BUNKER
There’s another fun scene that was filmed but ultimately ended up alone in the novelization that depicts Han, Leia, Chewbacca, and some rebel commandos encountering and battling some stormtroopers on their way from the bunker’s back door to the control room. They have to zig-zag through some corridors to get where they need to go and, of course, they’re all guarded. Here’s the excerpt from the novelization:
Han, Chewie, Leia, and a dozen commandos made their way down the labyrinthine corridors toward the area where the shield generator room was marked on the stolen map. Yellow lights illuminated the low rafters, casting long shadows at each intersection. At the first three turnings, all remained quiet; they saw no guard or worker.
At the fourth cross-corridor, six Imperial stormtroopers stood a wary watch.
There was no way around; the section had to be traversed.Han and Leia looked at each other and shrugged; there was nothing for it but to fight.
With pistols drawn, they barged into the entryway. Almost as if they’d been expecting an attack, the guards instantly crouched and began firing their own weapons. A barrage of laserbolts followed, ricocheting from girder to floor. Two stormtroopers were hit immediately. A third lost his gun; pinned behind a refrigerator console, he was unable to do much but stay low.Two more stood behind a fire door, though, and blasted each commando who tried to get through. Four went down. The guards were virtually impregnable behind their vulcanized shield – but virtually didn’t account for wookiees.
Chewbacca rushed the door, physically dislodging it on top of the two stormtroopers. They were crushed.
Leia shot the sixth guard as he stood to draw a bead on Chewie. The trooper who’d been crouching beneath the refrigeration unit suddenly bolted, to go for help. Han raced after him a few long strides and brought him down with a flying tackle. He was out cold.
They checked themselves over, accounted for casualties. Not too bad – but it had been noisy. They’d have to hurry now, before a general alarm was set. The power center that controlled the shield generator was very near. And there would be no second chances.
Starwars.com once posted a photo of Han Solo sizing up the damage from the bunker infiltration. The caption on the photo read: “Infiltrating an Imperial bunker, General Han Solo leads his commando team past the bodies of their fallen enemies.”
C-3PO’S STORY AND MORE FROM ENDOR
The story C-3PO tells (and acts out to) the Ewoks is an important plot point. Without this scene, the Rebellion wouldn’t have gained the help it needed to overthrow the Empire. Like them or not, the Ewoks saved the day. Originally, 3PO’s story was a little bit longer than what we saw in the theatrical version of the film. I don’t have details on what exactly was cut out but these quotes from a 1985 interview with Anthony Daniels in Star Warriors magazine give us an idea:
Q: Do you like the reaction with the fans?
DANIELS: Oh yes! Because when you do a film, you can feel very lonely. You have the script and you work alone in your sitting room at home at night. Then, you get to the studio and all the things you worked out… Like, there’s a piece in JEDI where they said to me the night before, “Tony, when you come in tomorrow, we want you to mime the whole STAR WARS, the whole of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and as far as we’ve got on the script of JEDI. So, see if you can work out what you’re going to do…”
So I went to my sitting room and I moved the furniture – I nearly said the scenery, you can tell I’m an actor, can’t you? – and I kind of wrote out the sort of things I would like to do. Then I tried to do them. I tried to mime being a Walker, I tried to mime the Death Star, a light sabre. Then I got into the studio, and, of course, the costume restricted me so much in what I could actually do. But, homework is one of the things one has to do. It can get pretty lonely sometimes.
Q: I’m glad you brought that scene up. Did you do all of the choreography for that yourself?
DANIELS: Yes, I did. Originally it was longer, but obviously in a film that’s already two hours thirty minutes, you’re way on the edge of losing people’s interest. So, bits of it were cut out. We kept the main pieces of it, however.
Could you add the rumors about the Han/Leia wedding?
Which rumors are you referring to?
Take a look at “Behind the scenes”:
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Wedding_of_Han_Solo_and_Leia_Organa
There is no evidence that this was ever filmed to my knowledge. No storyboards, no script pages, etc. I don’t think this was a thing. We would have heard more about it by now. It’s just a rumor and the EU has expanded the story quite a bit.
Whatever. It’s not that important. Just wanted to suggest it. After all, unused concepts are listed. And passages of earlier scripts, even through you can’t be sure about that everything of it was filmed.