Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi

The concluding installment of the original trilogy, released on May 25, 1983. It was directed by Richard Marquand, with a screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan and George Lucas, and Howard Kazanjian served as producer. The music, as in the previous episodes, was composed by John Williams.

The film closes the arc begun in 1977 and brings the conflict between the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire to its conclusion roughly a year after the events of the fifth episode. It marks the first full on-screen appearances of Emperor Palpatine, Jabba the Hutt, and the inhabitants of the forest moon of Endor, the Ewoks, and also introduces Jabba's palace on Tatooine as a distinct cultural location of the universe.

The film was twice revised by its creators: the 1997 Special Edition and subsequent digital re-releases made changes to the picture and sound. For the archive, the film is important as a chronological boundary: most events of the New Republic era and later works are dated from the battle with which it ends.