Recently i listened to the RLM Audio Commentary for ROTJ. In the last minutes Jay Bauman mentioned that the new ending felt like ‘Independence Day’ where everyone on earth celebrates the destruction of the alien ships at the same time, whereupon in ‘Jedi’ everyone in the galaxy celebrates the downfall of the Empire at the same time.
That similartity between both movies is kind of interesting and makes me wonder if Lucas actually saw ID4 in the summer of '96 and decided to create a similar happy ending for the upcoming ROTJ Special Edition in March of '97.
There is a clue that a ‘certain’ friend suggested to Lucas that he should see ‘Independence Day’ in the theatre. Steven Spielberg mentioned in the Making Of Featurette ‘The Return of a Legend’ for Indiana Jones KOTCS that he called up George after he saw ID4. He told George that it’s impossible to further develop the ‘Indiana Jones and the Saucer Men from Mars’ script, because ID4 deals with the same topic.
So, is the new ending of ROTJ another indirect/passive contribution to the Star Wars Saga from Steven Spielberg or another example Lucas borrowing ideas from other movies? Maybe both…