PiNkEyE69

Got a question for any of those who watched the original film at the cinema
In the Empire Of Dreams documentary Lucas says he didn't retitle the original Star Wars movie to "Star Wars : Episode IV A New Hope" until he got the red light to make Empire.
My question is, did the scrolling intro still have Episode IV : A New Hope at the top of it on it's original theatrical presentation or was it missing and put in when he started on Empire (Star wars has been re-released countless times at the cinema since it's original debut)
All my VHS tapes (original, Digital remastered, Special Edition) show it with the sub title title at the start

Being 2 1/2 when I was taken to see it for the first time back in 77 I can't remember much

richieh

was a little older than 21/2 myself and i dont remember any referece to any other films or it being part 4 otherwise i'd have gone nuts looking for the first 3
stand to be corrected tho'
richie

Geezer

When I saw it in the cinema for the first time in 1977, I remember very clearly being confused by the scrolling titles for that very reason. How could this be episode 4?

I believe that Lucas presented the whole story to Fox, but they said it was too dark and depressing, but the 4th episode was good movie fodder. It was a case of 'if this does well, you can make the others', so maybe that is what he is talking about.

I also believe that the original screenplay for the whole thing was called' The Story of Mace Windu'

Geezer

carl

It does say in the documentaries for the DVD box set that they didn't know it was going to be a hit, so the scrolling titles originally said STAR WARS. Within a few days it was obvious how big it was going to be, so George Lucas hurriedly added EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE to the titles.

TonyG

Original scrolling title when I saw it back in 1977 didn't have ' A New Hope'. First time I saw that appear was when I saw Star Wars/Empire Strikes back' together as a double bill.