"Soon the Rebellion will be crushed and young Skywalker will be one of us."

A collection of furry Ewoks and roly-poly thug Jabba the Hut provided Star Wars fans with some new beloved characters, in Return of the Jedi, the third and final installment in George Lucas’s original trilogy.

Released in 1983, what would officially be known as Episode 6 found dashing hero Hans Solo encased in a carbonite prison within Jabba the Hut’s totooine palace. A rescue party is on the way, however, in the form of Princess Leia, trusted sidekick Chewbacca, droids C3PO and R2D2, and Lando Calrissian. After successfully infiltrating the palace, a disguised Leia rescues the frozen Solo, but Jabba isn’t easily fooled and rounds up the whole gang.

Their only hope of rescue now is the now fully-realized Jedi, Luke Skywalker. Upon his arrival, he is promptly served as a dinner course to a beast called Rancor, but Luke emerges victorious and Jabba doesn’t take it well. He sentences Luke, Solo and Chewie to death, to be executed by way of the ominous Sarlacc pit, but is outwitted yet again, when they all battle successfully for their freedom and make a daring escape.

Meanwhile, over at the Empire, the final touches are being put on a new and improved Death Star, supervised under the watchful eye of the sinister Emperor himself. But the newly escaped heroes aren’t quite willing to let that happen. The whole crew shows up and splits into two groups. Lando and his team attack the Death Star externally while Han and friends try to take out the protective shield, via its power generator over on the moon of Endor. The plan is interrupted when the heroes are suddenly pursued by some treacherous cosmic teddy bears in a harrowing Imperial speeder bike chase. All proceed to be captured by the cute little Ewoks, but C3PO unwittingly saves the day, when the diminutive critters get a glimpse of his gold -plating and herald him as a God.

Thanks to the Ewoks’ change of heart, they allow themselves to be recruited by the group, to assist in taking out the generator. Meanwhile, Luke lets Leia in on a little shocking family tree trivia, before deciding to face Darth Vader and see if he can get the big guy to switch sides, while Vader is hoping for the opposite outcome. This all culminates with Han Leia and the Ewoks furiously trying to get the generator disabled, Lando and his army battling a sea of enemy forces, and Luke and Vader in a swashbuckling marathon of epic proportions.

Although it wasn’t released until three years after the original installment, Return of the Jedi was met with all the furor rabid fans could muster. Braving extraordinarily long lines, they helped propel the third film into the box-office stratosphere. The cuddly Ewoks were soon a favorite among the younger crowds, spawning two made-for-television movies (The Ewok Adventure and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor) and their very own animated series, called Ewoks. Even the droids got a little extra TV exposure in the own 1985 Saturday morning series, Droids: The Adventures of R2D2 and C3PO.

It would take a long fourteen years for a new installment to arrive. In the meantime, all three of the previous films were cleaned up and released in Special Edition versions. In this version of Return to the Jedi, additional scenes were added, showing an intergalactic celebration, as well as a spiffy new musical number performed over at Jabba’s place. This reissues calmed fans a little, but when 1999 came around, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace sent them into a full-blown frenzy all over again.