We may be surprised to learn that the comic adaptation of Return of the Jedi was released before the movie. While this incident caused a stir, it is not the only time this pre-release has occurred. We may even have a Star Wars trend with books and comics coming out first.
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Return of the Jedi Comic Came Out Early
The Return of the Jedi movie premiered on May 25, 1983, with the first volume in the comic series released on July 5th. Yet, that is not exactly what happened.
Marvel accidentally shipped the comic version out to stores about a month ahead of time. This article briefly chronicles how this happened by indicating how Marvel had shifted to the idea of a series by the third original film. Marvel had already been “doing a Star Wars comic book” before movies came out but by 1983 came to realize “the power of limited series.”
So, Return became a comic miniseries and a “Super Special” issue. The latter comic was sent out in advance. George Lucas was none too pleased and intervened, as did Marvel, but the comics still made their way out to the public, to some degree.
Mark Hamill also took action to prevent the Super Special #27 issue from spoiling the release of the movie. Reportedly, Hamill came across “issues of the adaptation…before the movie was released” and contacted Marvel to have them rescinded. It seems he had some success but that issues still circulated beforehand.
Does this incident expose a major mistake in Star Wars planning? Not really. That the comic came out first actually coincides with other films in the saga.
Other Times When the Movie Was Not Released First
Based on comments on this discussion board, the Return of the Jedi incident does not seem like a lone occurrence. Fans indicate how Revenge of the Sith had a video game version that came out before the movie, and The Phantom Menace had a book.
The novelization for Empire Strikes Back also followed this trend. The Donald F. Glut book came out on April 12, 1980, about a month before the theatrical release date of May 21, 1980. The novel contained some key differences, such as Yoda appearing with green skin and Luke training more with Yoda. Yet, the arc of the story was exposed.
As this article explains, Glut based the novelization on an earlier draft of Empire’s script. Hence, some differences appeared in it, but the book “followed the same overall plot.” Thankfully, the book did not include the major revelation about Vader being Luke’s father.
According to fans here, all of the original movies had novelizations that preceded the movies. This source confirms that notion and indicates how we find this particularly surprising for the first film A New Hope. In this case, the book appeared six months ahead of the blockbuster movie. A point of clarification, though, is that the book was still based on Lucas’s original screenplay. Production delays with the movie explain why the book came out first in this instance.
One danger of this trend with Star Wars movies is the spoilers that could get passed along. For the sequels, we see the book before the movie idea trailed off, keeping those secrets concealed.
Comics and Books Before Movies
Return of the Jedi did have an accidental release of comics before the movie came out that caused some controversy. But other movies like Empire and A New Hope had novelizations come out beforehand. We can also see how this reading before the movie became a trend until more recently.