Episode title in original theatrical release.

The "Episode IV" title was added to the 1981 theatrical re-release of "Star Wars" for double features with "Empire". No home video format ever had the crawl without the episode number until the 2006 "bonus disc" version of the theatrical cut.


The 1977, 1981, and 1997 versions of the opening crawl.

The first U.S. video cassette release was in 1982.

http://www.swonvideo.com/vhs/vvhsanh1982us.htm

Sbodge said:

So we can say that the episode numbers starting at 4 was already part of a design and at first they didn't add it because they didn't know if the movie would be a success (speculation) and as the movie was a hit and Lucas made good money he was able to make ep5 and ep6 and then add the episode number in the title? (that would be logical from my point of view)

If you would ask Lucas today he would perhaps say it was part of the design, but the truth is that the 1977 Star Wars was a self contained story and film, if for some reason they had included a title number back in '77, it would've been Episode I and definitely not IV, there's even storyboards depicting the planned crawl for The Empire Strikes Back that says Episode II, somewhere in the writing process of Empire, Lucas realized and decided that he could make the first film be the fourth in a big epic saga.

These episode numbers weren't really a big deal back then, some were obviously a little bit confused by seeing Episode V in the crawl on Empire in '80 but most people just took them as an homage to the old Flash Gordon serials which the films emulated. Oh, some time have passed since the last one, that's the way I saw it back when I first saw Empire in '80, not thinking I had missed three episodes. ;) I had actually no idea about planned sequels/prequels then.

The title Episode IV - A New Hope first appeared in the published script of the film in '79. That published script is a little bit different to the real actual shooting script. But fans who read it and those who were members of the fanclub etc. knew about the future title change, a few years before it actually materialized on film prints in '81.

Sbodge said:

So we can say that the episode numbers starting at 4 was already part of a design and at first they didn't add it because they didn't know if the movie would be a success

Hmm, yes we can say that, but personally I don't think that it would be true.

Honestly, I think the re-titling of the original Star Wars has only served to diminish it's impact and role as the true first film of the series.  My big pet peeve as a Star Wars fan is to have to hear it be called Episode IV: A New Hope, or when people call it "the fourth one" .  No.  This movie is STAR WARS.  

Should we go back and change the title of every movie that is eponymous with the franchise which it spawned?  Should we call the 1968 Planet of the Apes something else? Should we do the same for the 1984 Terminator?  No!

I never understood why George had to change the Episode title.  I find it so much more appropriate and quaint (in a good way) to see just STAR WARS in the opening crawl, and The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi shouldn't have had the episode titles there to begin with.  I never understood why they didn't just have their unique "logos" in the crawls (we should all know the famous-yet never used anymore-logos for Empire and Jedi).  But I never get too mad about that, since the original versions had the episode numbers anyway.  

What really ticks me off is how all of these movies are now referred to by their episode numbers almost exclusively.  "5 is the Best Star Wars, Episode VI is okay, A New Hope is so old!"...I hear "jargon" like this all the time.  Even with the episode titles in Empire and Jedi, the films were only ever marketed, spoken of, or known as...The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.  No "Episode V" or "Episode VI" this...

Now for the Prequels, they were released, marketed, and spoken of by Episode Number in the first place, so whatever (plus they're really awful movies that I don't even consider part of the series "true" continuity, at least from my point of view).  

But if you ask me, Episode IV: A New Hope belongs no where in what is the beautifully perfect original Star Wars film.  And Episode V and VI only belong in the crawls for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, not in their titles or any discussion concerning them.  

Well said, if you ask Lucas himself the original Star Wars belongs in a locked cellar or in the trash, the film haven't even been seen in its true light by audiences in that form without its bagage since '79. Imagine if another classic had been treated in the same way as Star Wars... Casablanca, Citizen kane, The Godfather to name a few. It doesn't really help that the American Film Institute have ranked it as the 13th most important American film ever made when the most commonly viewed image of it is: "It's a kids movie". I sometimes wonder how people/media would react if The Wizard of Oz were updated every five years and the original were only available as VHS quality bonus material. The situation is disgusting, these films were created to be seen and they have been locked away far too long.

msycamore said:

Well said, if you ask Lucas himself the original Star Wars belongs in a locked cellar or in the trash, the film haven't even been seen in its true light by audiences in that form without its bagage since '79. Imagine if another classic had been treated in the same way as Star Wars... Casablanca, Citizen kane, The Godfather to name a few. It doesn't really help that the American Film Institute have ranked it as the 13th most important American film ever made when the most commonly viewed image of it is: "It's a kids movie". I sometimes wonder how people/media would react if The Wizard of Oz were updated every five years and the original were only available as VHS quality bonus material. The situation is disgusting, these films were created to be seen and they have been locked away far too long.

Almost anyone who knows of the changes and all wants to go back to the original versions. They're just too difficult to get, even the 2006 GOUT DVDs. It's a damn shame. These films need to be officially released on Blu-Ray with the theatrical versions, with all the old audio mixes available to choose from (VERY possible on Blu-Ray) and decent cover art that isn't photo-shopped and that titles the movies by their originally released and marketed titles. 

Come on George. I think people will get that Star Wars is the fourth one in your series...even if they're tasteless enough to even consider your prequel abominations as part of the story.

I think it looks kind of naked without the "Episode IV" in the crawl.

And if George didn't plan on there being any sequels, why did he come up for an idea for a low budget sequel in case the first movie didn't do well enough?

I don't know why people are so intent on calling George a liar and saying that he never planned certain things the way he did, just because he didn't write them down in a published script draft. I've got tons of ideas in the back of my head that I've never published or even written down.

Star Wars Purist said:

Should we go back and change the title of every movie that is eponymous with the franchise which it spawned?

 Personally, I kind of thought it was dumb that they changed the title of Pitch Black to Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black (only on box art, etc., not in the film itself), but then the second live action film is still just called "Chronicles of Riddick".

Let me quote my own dissertation here:

The second-draft screenplay, finished in January 1975 is titled The Adventures of the Starkiller, Episode One of the Star Wars

...

On May 1^st 1975 Lucas produced a new six page synopsis which he sent to 20^th Century Fox to inform them about the development of the story. This new synopsis was basically a short summary of the second draft screenplay

In May 1975 Lucas decided to rename The Star Wars to Episode Four in the Adventures of Luke Starkiller. At this point however this decision probably wasn’t made because of the planned prequels; In the Unauthorized Star Wars Compendium the producer of Star Wars Garry Kurtz is quoted to have said in an interview for Starlog magazine:

 

"Certain kinds of movies just work better – or seem to work better – when you come in in the middle. I know that was the case with a lot of the low-budget films I made with Roger Corman. When you arrive in the middle, you miss all the tedious exposition and jump right into the action. We wanted that effect with Star Wars – the feeling that you had come in after the movie had started." (Edwards 13)

 

This idea was later dropped however, and the third draft of the script was titled Episode I again (Kaminski 104) and the final film was simply called Star Wars and the episode title was omitted completely. It was only after the huge success of the film and during the production of the first sequel that Lucas decided to go back to this concept and dub the sequel Episode V and then he retroactively renamed Star Wars to Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope in 1981. (Kaminski 230)