DELETED SCENE: LUKE INSPECTS A Y-WING!

Han and Luke observe the hangar activity and a nearby Y-wing fighter.

Having delivered the Princess to her supporters within the Rebel Alliance on Yavin IV, young Luke Skywalker, perhaps now feeling surplus to requirements with his task accomplished, is easily distracted by the old but impressive X and Y-wing fighters assembled within the Massassi temple, and soon goes to inspect one, watched by Han Solo, in a brief deleted scene moment from the original Star Wars, filmed as part of the first unit on the massive Stage H at Shepperton Studios from the 9th-11th June, 1976. The moment was ultimately replaced with a close-up of Artoo Detoo dismounted from the transport vehicle and with overlaid dialogue about the droid's importance from Princess Leia to General Willard (Eddie Byrne).

The overall set was supplied with 10 British extras dressed as Rebel fighter pilots, 30 as ground technicians, and 10 as Rebel Troopers, most of whom had prior appeared with the prior shooting in May of the film's finale medal ceremony scenes, also captured on Stage H. Mark Hamill had sustained a toe injury at this time of new filming at Shepperton, but was recovering.

Arriving in the Massassi Temple hangar.

General Willard (Eddie Byrne) is pleased and relieved to see Princess Leia again as Han watches and a quiet Luke moves towards the Y-wing.

Luke is distracted as he sees a nearby Y-wing fighter, whilst Han dismounts the travel vehicle.

Han watches Luke examining the Y-wing fighter's energy pod.

Han and Luke by the Y-wing which only had the one pod attachment created in the UK during studio filming, probably singular due to size issues on the soundstage for fighter prop re-positioning camera shots. Whether there was any filmed dialogue between the two characters here is unknown but not an impossibility.

'STAR WARS' AT 40: DEEP IN THE REBEL TEMPLE HANGAR BAY...

Generic shot of the hangar bay at Shepperton. Note the partially built Y-wing prop being positioned for a new take, with only one engine pod. 

Newly arrived at the temple base of the Rebels on Yavin IV, our heroes are transported into the depths of its interior and one of the hangar bays housing the X and -wing fighters. Filmed on the biggest soundstage at London's Shepperton Studios in Summer 1976, one full size X-wing and a partial Y-wing fighter were practically built, with large photo blow ups of the craft placed in various illusionary positions to make it look like a large compliment of fighter craft were present. With different scenes shot, the full size craft and photo blow ups would be re-positioned where necessary. Some long shots were heightened by later matte work at ILM.

The interior arrival sequence of our heroes disembarking the transport was flipped in editing: our heroes arriving from the other direction, as seen in this above shot. Handled in post production, this was presumably done for aesthetic reasons linked to match matte painting work at ILM by Harrison Ellenshaw. A deleted moment briefly shown in the film, but captured by on-set stills photographers in rehearsal, has Luke (once more wearing his poncho), watched by Han, going off to inspect the fighters, of which a brief start of the moment can be seen in the movie.

Luke wanders towards the fighters, soon watched by Han.

More on Eddie Byrne in his brief appearance as Rebel General Willard: https://starwarsaficionado.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/EDDIE%20BYRNE

CLASSIC IMAGE: HAPPY REUNION!

General Willard shows his affection at seeing the alive and well Princess Leia Organa returned to the fold of the Rebel Alliance, in one of the few stills so far released showing the character (taken during a filming break), as played by popular Irish actor Eddie Byrne, from the original STAR WARS.

At the recent London Film and Comic Con event (July 2014), AFICIONADO contributor Ian Trussler asked STAR WARS first producer Gary Kurtz about Byrne's major screen credit, for what was such a minor role: "Kurtz responded that, in the first cut of the movie, he had a much larger part which, through various editing, got cut down to almost nothing. Also, the screen credit thing in those days was a bit of a lottery and often alphabetical order came into it after the principles had been credited. Hence Byrne got a fairly prominent credit based against actual screen time."

Cheers for the info, Ian!

Additional note: In the film's 1977 post production process, Byrne's voice/dialogue would be dubbed by US actor Michael Bell.

https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/movies/movie-news/family-used-to-scribble-numbers-on-grandads-original-star-wars-script-actor-jack-olohan-34287922.html

BEHIND THE SCENES IMAGE: REBEL REUNION

Within the hangar bay of the Massassi Temple on the Fourth Moon of Yavin, realized on the biggest soundstage of London's SHEPPERTON STUDIOS, Rebel Leader Princess Leia Organa, accompanied by Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, is reunited with her friends and comrades in battle, including General Willard (played by popular sixties Irish film actor Eddie Byrne).