# Star Wars: Wasn't always a new hope?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-wasnt-always-a-new-hope/173773>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [May 7, 2003, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-wasnt-always-a-new-hope/173773 "2003-05-07T22:14:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Grousser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9d8465/32.png) [@Grousser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grousser)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-wasnt-always-a-new-hope/173773/1 "2003-05-07T22:14:13Z")

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I heard here, there or somewhere that the first prints of Star Wars didn’t contain the words “A new hope” in the famous paragraph starting sequence. Anybody knows if this is true?

If so, that’s pretty logical because I had a strong suspicion that George Lucas didn’t imagine his idea would be a huge success, the trilogy of trilogies (apologies to Kieslowski fans) and part of a great saga (apologies to Friday the 13th fans).

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**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-wasnt-always-a-new-hope/173773/2 "2003-05-07T22:55:27Z")

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This has been asked here several times.

The answer is no, no, NO!

No print of the 1977 film Star Wars contained the title A New Hope until **after** The Empire Strikes Back was **released** (i.e. not until Star Wars was re-released).

No matter how hard someone swears they saw it before this, they didn’t!

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**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-wasnt-always-a-new-hope/173773/3 "2003-05-07T23:04:55Z")

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I’m pretty sure it did say “Episode IV” though. And then all that talk about a trilogy of trilogies before ESB came out.

Could be remembering a causality loop, now that I think about it…

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**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-wasnt-always-a-new-hope/173773/4 "2003-05-07T23:30:59Z")

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It didn’t say ‘Episode IV’ either.

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**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-wasnt-always-a-new-hope/173773/5 "2003-05-07T23:40:02Z")

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Hail Ants is right. [Cite](http://www.starwars.com/community/askjc/steve/askjc20021031.html)

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**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-wasnt-always-a-new-hope/173773/6 "2003-05-07T23:50:39Z")

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Ok, but the talk about the multi parts was pre ESB, according to that cite. So, maybe that’s why my memory had false ingrams planted in it.

Thanks for the cite, btw, always nice to get The Straight Dope™ on something.