But the question is were any of the effect shots optically recomposited? Particularly this shot in ben’s hovel which would need to have a new rotoscoped saber element created.
I don’t think so. I don’t think all of the effects shots were redone, but from what I’ve read, those that were were done digitally. The negative (or in some cases the IP) were scanned in at 2k, digitally manipulated and then output back to film as a new piece of negative.
“Soon all was ready to cut into the original Star Wars negative. Before doing that, however, Tom wanted to check something with George. He explained to George that everything was ready to cut in, but he wanted to know whether they should order a duplicate negative of the original version. It could easily be done, he said, and then there would always be an original version of this historic movie. George said, “This is the original version,” meaning that what everyone else had described as a restoration, he considered the final version of the movie.”