An unearthed alternate take from Return Of The Jedi reveals Yoda made Obi-Wan keep mum about Luke's father

The Star Wars blooper reel that popped up last week isn’t the only lost footage resurfacing on the Internet. Rare footage has just popped up courtesy of a $699 laserdisc originally produced as a demonstration of Lucasfilm’s EditDroid digital editing system first sold in 1984 and purchased just recently by some industrious eBay buyer. According to The Verge, Lucas never used the system to edit a movie, but the clips were uploaded to the laserdisc simply to show off the capabilities of the EditDroid.

The buyer has been uploading various clips to a Facebook profile in the past week, but a scene of Luke’s return to Dagobah presented an alternate backstory in the Star Wars mythos. The unused take—literally, the line never made it into the film—shows Yoda revealing to Luke that he prevented Obi-Wan from revealing the true fate of Anakin Skywalker, and that Kenobi was conflicted over the deception. Somewhere in production on Return Of The Jedi, there was at least some consideration given to revealing a schism in how the two remaining Jedi wished to proceed with Luke and Leia. That’s not a pivotal change, but it does make more sense of the somewhat contentious relationship Obi-Wan has with Yoda and the Jedi Council in the prequel films. The total laserdisc footage will total about 30 minutes, and will be uploaded to YouTube whenever the buyer finishes remastering the clips.