'EPISODE III' AT TWENTY: "ORDER 66"

The murder of the Jedi across the galaxy begins as Ki-Adi Mundi falls to his troops on Mygeeto.

With Anakin Skywalker gone and Darth Vader now crowned in his place by the manipulative Darth Sidious, of which the young former hero will soon be unleashed in all his terrifying power against the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, the evil Dark Lord master is now ready to send the Order 66 signal across the galaxy that will see the Clone Troopers, after years of pre-planning, finally turn against their Jedi Commanders and murder them across a thousand worlds and beyond. 

The Dark Times of the Sith and the Galactic Empire have begun...

One of the key sequences that Star Wars fans had been anticipating that would be effectively revealed in Episode III, hauntingly bolstered by superb music from John Williams, and featuring pre-viz ideas/contributions from Steven Spielberg, encouraged to provide ideas for the then final film of the saga by his friend George, for both Order 66 and the finale duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan on Mustafar.

Darth Sidious activates Order 66 to the Clone Troopers across the galaxy.

"To be very honest, that scene (Order 66) was about twice as long as it is now. There were a lot more Jedi killed in a lot more ways, but it kind of went on and on. So we finally cut it down to what we thought was the minimum we could get away with and still get a sense that there are thousands of Jedi around the galaxy."

George Lucas - Empire magazine - July 2005

The bold Aayla Secura is cornered and brutally executed on the alien world of Felucia.

Darth Vader leads his elite troops into the Jedi Temple and continue the surprise massacre.

Shaak Ti's (Orli Shoshan) original death scene would instead be re-filmed and editorially moved to the Order 66 sequence, where she would be slain from behind by Anakin/Darth Vader instead of Grievous. sadly, this scene too would end up being deleted.

Vader soon slaughters a group of innocent younglings hiding in the Temple.

As the Jedi drop like flies across the galaxy, Yoda is disturbed in the Force whilst on Kashyyyk.

Fire and explosions rock the Jedi Temple on Coruscant.

Padme and Threepio are shocked and disturbed by what they see in the distance.

On patrol, Stass Allie (Nina Fallon) is murdered by her speeder bike colleagues on Saleucami.

Plo Koon is taken out by his wingmen above one of the bridge cities of Cato Neimoidia.

Yoda is soon in the Clone blaster crosshairs but escapes the carnage, with help from the Wookiees.

'EPISODE III' AT TWENTY: TO DUEL A SITH LORD!

Lucas watches the new choreography between Ian McDiarmid and Samuel L. Jackson, hastily supervised by Nick Gillard.

With the Sith enemy finally revealed as none other than the Supreme Chancellor himself, Mace Windu finds himself in single, brutal lightsaber combat with Darth Sidious and thankfully seems to overpower his nemesis. But when Anakin Skywalker arrives on the scene playing out within the Chancellor's office, and sees Windu readying to kill the evil energy scarred Sith, the young Jedi has no choice but to intervene, so as to save the life of Padme. And so comes a shocking end to the respected Jedi Master, but a man who had nonetheless been wary of Anakin since his introduction to Yoda and the Jedi Council in Episode I.

"I suppose it's easy to play, I think, a hypercritical politician with a smiling face. It's also quite gratifying. Most difficult, certainly for me, were the all action sequences. The sequence fighting Sam (Jackson) and persuading Hayden (Christensen) to send him through the window. But you'll see from the DVD we had our problems that day. They weren't big ones and were easily surmountable."

"I'd learned some stuff and I worked with Nick Gillard, and when George saw it on the set it wasn't what he needed. And interestingly enough what he needed was more of me. I'd rather thought they'd want less of me. But he wanted not just my facial expressions, which would have been obvious and he was not terribly interested in replacing faces unless it was absolutely necessary, he wanted my energy."

Ian McDiarmid - Episode III DVD press launch - 2005

Locking sabers: Darth Sidious and Mace Windu.

Lucas goes through planned moves on set.

Lucas watches Ian McDiarmid with his double, Michael Byrne, as Sam Jackson and Nick Gillard wait to see what is improvised in the duel.

McDiarmid gets some intriguing new duelling moves in the sequence that are far different from any Jedi's attack/defense.

Filming the duel sequence near the what will be a CGI-smashed observation window.

The sparks are flying!

Anakin arrives to see the fallen Palpatine, as seen in this visual script page from Nick Gillard.

Holding two lightsabers (one presumably being Sidious's) in an unseen moment, Mace resists the dark side energies against him, watched by a troubled Anakin.

Onscreen, with just one saber taking on the powers of Palpatine.

Windu, with just his own saber, holds firm against the Sith's evil energies, but Anakin's surprise action leads to his demise at Sidious's hands - 'unlimited power'!

Mace is propelled out the window in the scene shot at the FOX Studios, Australia.

Jackson enjoys his 'death' alongside Nick Gillard.

"Yeah, it was hard work, a lot harder than before. You get what you ask for sometimes, and it's... damn! So, I ended up in Australia, and then I guess I had to rehearse for 8 days before I actually shot it, learned a 137-move saber fight. It was crazy."

Samuel L. Jackson - Tiscali Internet interview - 2005

"All of the stuff that I shot is in the movie. Nothing is on the floor, and George kept calling me back. We filmed Revenge of the Sith two and a half, almost three years ago, and I went back six times to do re-shoots, enhancement shots or whatever. We kept adding more and more, and all my material is in the picture. I even had to go back and sort of redo my death scene because George didn't think it was long enough. Well, I was kind of there like, "Ahhh," and then out of the window, George was like, "No. No. Stay in there." My death is cool. Actually, I could have ended the saga. I'm still a bad mother, but I had Sidious. I had him!" 

Samuel L. Jackson - Starlog magazine issue 337 - August 2005

Sam Jackson celebrates the 20th Anniversary landmark. Image: Facebook.

'EPISODE III' AT TWENTY: GRIEVOUS BODILY HARM!

Multi-saber murderer!

No longer the coward, the evil General Grievous decides to stand and fight, putting his unique and lethal lightsaber skills to bear against his ongoing enemy Obi-Wan Kenobi, whilst the environs of the sinkhole city of Utapau now resound to the fire of warfare with the newly arrived Clone Troopers. Another great moment for the cyborg villain in his final scenes during Episode III.

Obi-Wan proves a match for the Droid General.

"Since Dooku gets killed off early, I needed to have a villain besides the Emperor, who is the ultimate villain, the real key villain. I needed another person. A MacGuffin for the Jedi to go chasing around the universe. I also wanted to foreshadow what was going to happen to Anakin. So here we have an alien who's been put into a droid suit, he's a half-alien, half-droid. I wanted him to be quite a lot different from Darth Vader. Dooku was foreshadowing the idea that the Emperor would take a disgruntled Jedi and turn him into a Sith Lord. So with each film we kind of foretell a little of what is going to happen with Anakin. In this case, Grievous is that mechanism."

George Lucas - Empire magazine - June 2005

An Ode to Grievous | StarWars.com

A close-in shot of the malevolent alien/droid warlord.

'EPISODE III' AT TWENTY: WOOKIEE WAR BUDDIES!

Comrades in Wookiee-dom: Chewbacca and Tarfful. Image: Keith Hamshere.

It's a system that the Republic cannot afford to lose to the Separatists, as Master Yoda brings a force of Clone Troopers to the lush and tropical Wookiee world of Kashyykk, liaising with its fierce armies lead by the furry leader Tarfful (Michael Kingma), and his special aide in the legendary Chewbacca, once more played by the iconic Peter Mayhew. Fans loved this first official onscreen visit to Kashyyyk, and the return of loveable Chewie, in a sequence that ultimately proved far too short.

Back in an all-new yak hair costume after thirteen years away: Peter Mayhew is Chewbacca!

Mayhew in costume for publicity, holding a unique cane stick not seen in the film. Image: Keith Hamshere.

"I got a call from Rick McCallum last year (2003), and he wanted to check on dates and my availability. It was one of those nice phone calls that you get. It's great to know that you're going to do something that you've had in the back of your mind for a long time."

Peter Mayhew- Star Wars Insider issue 79 - Jan/Feb 2005

"Chewie is up to all sorts of things in Revenge of the Sith - battles, rescues, all the good stuff. I have a reasonable chunk of screen time."

"After so many years, it's great that Chewie is finally getting the recognition and background details that the fans want to know."

Peter Mayhew - Starlog magazine issue 334 - May 2005

Liaising with Tarfful, Yoda and the Jedi before battle begins.

A guide to the Episode III Wookiees.

'EPISODE III' AT TWENTY: PADME AND THE DELEGATION OF 2000 TAKE ACTION!

Padme gets serious in diplomacy with this memorable outfit.

On Coruscant, the Clone Wars continue on despite the defeat of Count Dooku, with Supreme Chancellor Palpatine's senatorial powers seemingly undiminished nor scaled back, as he had prior promised he would. Now is the time that a group of war-weary senators, ultimately led by Padme Amidala (garbed in one of her most striking diplomatic outfits), meets with Palpatine, watched by the leader's loyal friend and bodyguard of sorts in Anakin Skywalker, to discuss the future and an end to the galactic warfare. The Delegation of 2000 sadly fails in their task, brushed aside by Palpatine, of which Padme feels frustrated that Anakin is not in her corner on the subject, adding strain to their relationship.

Anakin watches as Palpatine brushes the Delegation's genuine concerns away.

The Delegation of 2000 has been soundly defeated.

An intriguing deleted sequence that we all wish had been put back into the film, boosting Natalie Portman's role in the film, and especially after so much prior production publicity linked to this sequence had been given to the fans, including the appearance of a Mon Calamari senator. 

Revenge of the Sith at 20: Revisiting the Cut Scenes | StarWars.com

Posed publicity/costume reference images by Keith Hamshere.

Continuity polaroid of Natalie Portman in costume for the deleted Scene 89.

Costume camera test scene.

"The biggest change was that, when I wrote the first draft, I had way too much stuff. It was a longer movie. I had a whole thing about Padme helping to start the Rebellion. Obi-Wan also had a whole piece, and there was more about the Emperor. And R2-D2 and C-3PO had bigger roles. But I realized that, one, I had too much material, and two, it was extraneous. Also, the film - which is the third act - really had to be about Anakin and his fall from grace. Anything that didn't deal with that had to get out. So I cut everything except Anakin's story."

George Lucas - Starlog 337 - August 2005

Portman in her stunning costume for a posed photo shoot with the costume team (including designer Trisha Biggar and Ivo Coveney), for Vanity Fair magazine's coverage of Episode III. Image by Annie Leibovitz.

'EPISODE III' AT TWENTY: A JEDI'S CONCERN...

A concerned Obi-Wan Kenobi in Padme's apartment on Coruscant.

Before being called to leave Coruscant to search for General Grievous on Utapau, Obi-Wan Kenobi makes a morning visit to Senator Amidala at her apartment. The reunion is a warm one at first, but Obi-Wan's concerns for his moody former Padawan are clear - Anakin's personality and feelings are especially clouded, not just by his troubled obligations to the Jedi, Obi-Wan and Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, but also in his relationship with Padme, a situation of which Obi-Wan is fully aware that the couple are in love and will keep secret, maintaining their friendships. He asks Padme to keep an eye on Anakin and offer support during his important absence.

Ultimately cut for time and pacing reasons in 2004/5, the intriguing character-based scene (shot around July 2003), bizarrely never made it onto any DVD or Blu-ray deleted scene extras (especially strange as Padme actually references the meeting to Anakin in the film). 

Old friends happily reunited.

A page from the filmed but deleted sequence filmed at the FOX Studios, Australia.

Multiple camera filming of the scene.

The Jedi Council contact Kenobi informing him of his urgent mission to Utapau.