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I have heard that the original film was to be "The Star Wars" and somewhere along the line they dropped "The".

One person says they have seen a windbreaker or T-shirt in a Star Wars collection that has the familiar logo and includes "The" that came from somebody involved in the film.

Was the title originally "The Star Wars"?

SQB
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Thomas Mitchell
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    The Star Wars: First Draft was the first title of the idea, and later transformed into Adventures of the Starkiller, Saga I: The Star Wars, which in turn was turned into The Star Wars: From The Adventures of Luke Starkiller – Petersaber Jan 25 '17 at 11:09
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    Then, Lucas had lunch with Sean Parker... – Darrick Herwehe Jan 25 '17 at 13:33
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    The phrasing in the question body, "was to be", matches the answer about a first draft, but the phrasing in the title, "originally called", implies to me that it would have had to have been released under that title for the answer to be 'yes'. – DCShannon Jan 25 '17 at 18:42

3 Answers3

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Yes, this is correct

One of Lucas' earliest drafts of the script, penned in 1974, sold at auction in 2013; that script bore the title "The Star Wars" (click to embiggen):

enter image description here

And fan-made scans of the early script drafts continue to support this (click to embiggen all images):

  • The 1973 treatment, titled "The Star Wars"

    enter image description here

  • The 1974 rough draft script, which bears the title "Star Wars" on the outside cover but "The Star Wars" on the inside:

    enter image description here

  • The 1975 second draft, titled "Adventures of the Starkiller (episode one) The Star Wars":

    enter image description here

However, I'm not aware of any official merchandise bearing this title; certainly there wouldn't have been any at the time, because merchandise production was famously limited before the film was actually in theatres, and the title had changed by that time; Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) posted some images of his copy of the 1976 script on Twitter, where the definite article had already been dropped (click to embiggen):

enter image description here

Jason Baker
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    +1 for embiggen, one of the very best words not in the English language. – CHEESE Jan 25 '17 at 02:36
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    It's a very cromulent word – Richard Ev Jan 25 '17 at 03:54
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    Bah humbug. Pfui. – Matt Gutting Jan 25 '17 at 05:55
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    A Stanford University physicist managed to slip "embiggen" into an actual scientific journal article. Incidentally, this article was called "Gauge/gravity duality and meta-stable dynamical supersymmetry breaking", so I can't imagine "embiggen" was the biggest hurdle to overcome in order to understand it. – maguirenumber6 Jan 25 '17 at 07:15
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    So people looking through cinema listings at the time would just have seen "Star Wars", correct? – The Dark Lord Jan 25 '17 at 11:37
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    @CHEESE embiggen is being used regularly; it probably can be defined as being in the English language by now. – Simba Jan 25 '17 at 11:39
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    -1 for no freehand circles – Gallifreyan Jan 25 '17 at 14:02
  • I didn't know Utapau and the Whills had been (intended to be) in the story from the start. – JAB Jan 25 '17 at 17:21
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    @TheDarkLord Yes. – Tin Wizard Jan 25 '17 at 18:58
  • What's wrong with "enlarge"? It's easier to say, spell, write and type than "embiggen". – DepressedDaniel Jan 25 '17 at 23:42
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    @DepressedDaniel: Why use a humdrum, stodgy, plebian, platitudinous word like "enlarge" that when you can use spine-tingling, hair-raising, provocative, flashy words like "embiggen"? – tonysdg Jan 25 '17 at 23:55
  • @tonysdg You mean why not use vertecreep, coifflifting, exterioragous, macromedish words like embiggen? Only so people can understand you ... – DepressedDaniel Jan 26 '17 at 00:14
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    Am I the only one to notice that the title in the picture of the presumed 1974 document looks like Times New Roman, the default font of the famous default word processor that did not exist in 1974? The rest of the document is plain typewriter. Those kind of documents at the time were fully typed on a typewriter, weren't they? IOW, is that photograph legit ? https://i.stack.imgur.com/rFio9m.jpg The other, presumed from 1976 looks more legit https://i.stack.imgur.com/hk8ivm.jpg – Stéphane Gourichon Jan 26 '17 at 10:59
  • @StéphaneGourichon IMHO the rest of the page is in a modern typewriter font rather than actual typewritten text. I think that picture is a mock-up of what someone thought the script might have looked like. –  Jan 26 '17 at 11:18
  • @jwg The image is taken directly from the auction lot page. I'm not a collector, but the auctioneer seems reputable, and I'm inclined to take them at their word. But, just for you, I went and found some less clean-looking images as further evidence – Jason Baker Jan 26 '17 at 14:20
  • @StéphaneGourichon: The top portion was clearly not done on a typewriter, but so what? There are a variety of devices that would have been available for purchase or use (at a graphics arts shop) at reasonable cost in the early 1970s that could produce text like that, including pantograph tracers and rubber stamps in different fonts [combined with careful effort to hand-fill the letters]. Producing that title would have been a lot more work back then than today, but for an aspiring writer to invest such effort would hardly seem implausible. – supercat Jan 26 '17 at 16:19
  • The original storyboards for the opening shots show the film's title as "The Star Wars". Don't have my storyboards book to hand, so not sure of the date. Example here: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a5/cc/98/a5cc9804f2dd47619f41f6977d70768f.jpg – Steven Rands Oct 23 '17 at 12:43
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The "Visual Encyclopedia of Science Fiction" is notable for surveying the field just before "The Star Wars " came out. Published in 1976, it's an excellent guide to fandom the moment before Star Wars broke, and the upcoming movie is always referred to as "The Star Wars".

Chris Tolworthy
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Bonus: Dark Horse produced an eight-volume comic series in 2013 called "The Star Wars", based on the original script treatment and incorporating all the stark differences between the original concept and the 1977 movie

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/The_Star_Wars

enter image description here

Tom Kidd
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  • Welcome to SFF:SE, you haven't seemed to answer the question but instead provided a comment. I recommend you either edit it to include an answer to Was the title originally "The Star Wars"? or delete your answer and provide it as a comment to the question. – Edlothiad Jan 26 '17 at 16:03
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    Unless you mean to say that the title of the comic series indicates that it was originally called The Star Wars, in that case it should probably made a little clearer. – Edlothiad Jan 26 '17 at 16:12