'JEDI' AT 40: DEATH STAR HANGAR ARRIVAL!

Cleared through the security shield protecting the Death Star, the lone Imperial Shuttle carrying its ominous passenger heads into one of the station's busy hangar bays...

The sequence would be an opening tour de force for the matte department, whose talents were put to the fullest (and beyond!) with their work across the many environments seen in Return of the Jedi.

A foreground miniature placed in front of the matte painting.

Shot on the ILM blue screen stage, two Space Stormtroopers at work welding. A last-minute filming addition, they would be blended into the final matte painting approach but were ultimately barely visible on screen only in the film's 1983 theatrical version.

Hangar arrival- again Shuttle model, ILM extras and matte painting combined. Note the painted TIE Bomber bottom middle.

The full matte painting which the model would be inserted onto.

Another matte painting used- showing the suspended TIE Bomber and a space for the Elstree Studios filming of hangar-arriving Imperial delegation.

As seen in the filming

Matte painting genius Frank Ordaz working on the first version of the above painting, one without the TIE Bomber and overhanging droid.

Full length revised version.