The Special Edition covers of Return of the Jedi and Empire Strikes Back are wrong. The picture of the Emperor on ESB cover is from 'ROTJ', and the lightsaber duel between Luke and Vader on the cover of ROTJ is taken from 'ESB' (notice Luke is in his fighter pilot suit, and Vader is fighting him one-handed)

There was a false page in the original script in order to fool all of the people working on the film. This was to keep it secret that Darth Vader was Luke's father. Only George Lucas, the producers and James Earl Jones knew the truth. Mark Hamill was told just moments before filming this scene so his reaction would be right, while David Prowse read the lines from the original script "Obi-Wan killed your father."

Originally, Boba Fett was supposed to be sort of an Imperial Super-Stormtrooper (in their trademark white armor). This idea was - in a way - reused in 'Attack of the Clones', with his father Jango Fett being the genetic father of the Stormtrooper clones.

Frank Oz's performance as Yoda impressed George Lucas so much, Lucas spent thousands of dollars on a campaign to nominate Oz for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. However, the Academy shot this down, feeling that puppeteers are not "actors."

Mark Hamill almost got killed when a giant flashlight blew over his head.

In the scene where Lando orders the evacuation of Cloud City, a bunch of civilians run past the camera as our heroes go down the corridor. The very last guy in this group can be clearly seen carrying an ice cream maker.

The scene in which Luke uses the Force to get his lightsaber back in the Wampa cave was filmed by having Mark Hamill throw the saber prop into the snow, and then running the film backwards.

There are two additional scenes that are not included in the special edition. The first one is near the beginning when Han is asking if Luke has made it back, you will notice that there is a slaughtered Tan-Tan on the ground. In the scene they discuss that something has killed it. Later, the Ice Creatures attack the Hoth base and get locked in a storeroom. A sticker is placed on the door saying do not open. In some of the promotional materials there is a shot of C3PO peeling off the sticker. Stormtroopers open the door and get killed. When Vader enters the base, he asks 'What killed these men?' After all, they had to blast into the room, and it's already full of dead Stormtroopers.

In the 1996 novel "Shadows of the Empire," it is revealed that Dash Rendar was one of the snowspeeder pilots during the Battle of Hoth.

This is in the Special Edition of The Empire Strikes Back. Darth Vader returns to his Star Destroyer (just after the Millennium Falcon retrieves Luke from underneath Cloud City). The shot that is used to show Vader walking down the shuttle ramp and into the Shuttle Bay is from Return of the Jedi (different angle) when he enters the Death Star at the beginning. You can see Moff Jerjerod just before the end of the shot.

During the chase in the asteroid field, a TIE fighter is hit by a little one. If you watch in slow-motion, you can see the pilot ejected from the explosion.

The scenes where R2-D2 is submerged in the mud pool were shot in George Lucas's unfinished swimming pool. Most of the crew were hidden under the water and the entire sequence was shot by Lucas himself.

In the movie, Jeremy Bulloch, who plays Boba Fett, is also seen out of his mask; namely as the Imperial officer who brings Lando, Leia, Chewie, and C-3PO to Vader's shuttle.

Director Irvin Kershner was a University of Southern California professor at the same time George Lucas was there as a film student.

While filming the scene in which Yoda and Obi-Wan to try convince Luke not to leave Dagobah, Mark Hamill was accidentally bitten by a snake he pulled out of the X-Wing's thrust engine.

Boba Fett's name is never mentioned. Throughout the film, he is referred to only as "Bounty Hunter."

When Darth Vader is addressing the bounty hunters, next to Boba Fett is IG-88, the bounty hunter from "Shadows of the Empire".

THX-1138 is referenced when, on Hoth, General Rieeken says "Send Rogues Ten and Eleven to station three-eight."

In the version released in 1980, Emperor Palpatine was voiced by Clive Revill, but was played by an old woman with makeup and a fake monkey eyebrow bump. In the 2004 DVD (and in "Return of the Jedi"), he is voiced and played by Ian McDiarmid.