'JEDI' AT 40: THE DROIDS MEET JABBA!

Now before the great Jabba the Hutt himself, our droid heroes present themselves within a throne room menagerie of grossly diverse and ruthless alien life forms, from bounty hunters to slavers and drug smugglers, all congregated in debauched celebration towards the great crime boss himself.

Ralph McQuarrie thumbnail art of the droids meeting Jabba.

Threepio bows to the almighty Jabba the Hutt!

Threepio confers with Oola (Femi Taylor) in either a posed publicity image or potential deleted scene moment?

Artoo prepares to send the message to Jabba.

Toby Lofthouse and John Birkinshaw make adjustments to Threepio on set.

AN 'EMPIRE' AT 40: PREPARING THE BOARDING PARTY!

 

The scene between Vader and Piett as originally filmed but flipped in editing of the final film. Image: Kurtz/Joiner Archive.

It's only a short matter of time before the crew of the Millennium Falcon are once more captured, as Admiral Piett confirms to Darth Vader that the smuggling ship's Hyperdrive has once more been deactivated, secretly without the knowledge of the now traitorous Lando Calrissian.

We reckon that the young Lieutenant opposite Piett, who delivers one line of dialogue, must have been a competition winner of some kind, or family member of the production team in a cameo, as he looks incredibly young on screen to be in that rank.

From the Special Edition version of 2004 - the flipped image now featured Imperial insignia changed to the correct positions on the costumes via CGI.

Dave Prowse is kept cool under via the grill in his helmet by his on set 'mother' - John Birkinshaw (Costuming Assistant).

With thanks to Ian Trussler for selected imagery.