Revenge of the Jedi was not a rumor. Official posters with that name were made. The branded numbering and subtitling only really started with The Phantom Menace. The various VHS releases and even the Special Editions were Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
I actually had started to state that about
Revenge as fact, but I backpedaled a little before clicking "Post Reply" in case my memory was making rumor into fact. Glad to see my memory was right! I know it was a big conversation piece back then for my high school self. Would a Jedi actually seek revenge? Or if he fought would he call it revenge? He would protect and defend, and restore balance... but revenge was too far... or was it? That debate was right up there with whether or not Han shot first. LOL.
Actually I believe the VHS special editions had the opening crawl changed with the new numbers. While the outside box still just called it Star Wars the crawl says Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope. I've got a set somewhere I just need a VHS player to double check what I've found on the youtubes.
The opening crawl was edited to read "Episode IV: A New Hope" well before the Special Editions or any VHS releases. The Empire Strikes Back has always been Episode V and Star Wars was edited to reflect that decision in theatrical re-releases.
And you all are right about the numbering. It was there from the time that
Star Wars was re-released the first time (about 1978) in the crawl, but not in the main advertising, even for the VHS and even DVDs. Mostly they advertised them as
Star Wars,
The Empire Strikes Back, and
Return of the Jedi. They connected the latter two to the series in posters and video boxes by wrapping the
Star Wars logo around the main title, but the number only appeared in the crawl.
The prequels changed all of that, of course, but mostly I think it was because there were beginning to be so many of them, and they wanted to connect them more concretely to the "Star Wars" franchise. (Yes, by then it was more of a marketing "franchise" driving these decisions than an organic connection; but that is a discussion for another day.)
I can see the generational change, though, and the effect of the marketing through the years. The younger generations I find now quick to use the numbers, even for the original trilogy, much more than people before them. For nearly thirty years I did not know ANYONE who would have referred to the original trilogy films by their number; but I find young people now calling them "Episode IV" or "V" or "VI" . And I definitely hear "A New Hope" now, where I never used to.
The craziest thing is that in December a late 20-something friend actually ARGUED with me about the original. She argued that it was
Episode IV: A New Hope from the very beginning. I had kept calling it "the original
Star Wars," and she asked me if I meant
A New Hope, and I said, "Yes, but it wasn't originally called that," and she proceeded to argue with me that it was. I had to explain to her that I was there, and it wasn't until later that next year.... Funny.
