While the sequel trilogy settled into familiar environments (sometimes under new names like Jakku), George Lucas always strived to introduce Star Wars fans to new worlds in every movie when he was in charge of the saga. According to Bob Iger’s The Ride of a Lifetime, this was one of Lucas’ main disappointments with The Force Awakens.
The original trilogy took audiences to such iconic planets and moons as Tatooine, Hoth, and Endor. Some of the Star Wars worlds from the original movies were more memorable and key to the story than others.
Yavin 4
Between Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewie escaping from the Death Star and returning with the Rebels to blow it up, they stop off on Yavin 4 for the mission briefing.
Yavin 4 is a steamy, jungle-covered moon, and its involvement in the plot of the movie is mostly confined to an ancient temple where the Rebels have set up shop. This is a pretty boring setting, and more familiar to Indiana Jones fans than Star Wars fans.
Alderaan
Leia’s home planet of Alderaan only appears on-screen so it can be blown up. Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin threaten to blow it up so she’ll give away the location of the secret Rebel base – which she does – and then they blow it up anyway to show off the mighty power of the Death Star.
Alderaan might only make an appearance so it can be promptly destroyed, but its destruction drastically raises the stakes of the conflict between the Rebels (specifically Leia) and the Empire. Now, not only is the Empire an oppressive force ruling the galaxy with an iron fist; the princess has a personal vendetta against them for killing everybody she ever loved and a couple of billion others on top of that.
Dagobah
During the opening sequence of The Empire Strikes Back, the ghost of Ben Kenobi inspires Luke to go to Dagobah to be trained by the only other surviving Jedi (that he knows of), Yoda. When Kenobi went to Tatooine to hide out after the Great Jedi Purge, Yoda headed even further off the grid to the misty swamps of Dagobah.
While there was a good chance that the Empire would find Obi-Wan on Tatooine, there was no chance of Yoda being found on Dagobah. The only other living creatures there are terrifying monsters lurking in murky lakes. There’s an air of mystery around Dagobah as most of its spookiest corners are shrouded under a thick layer of fog. Luke is treated to an unsettling Force vision foreshadowing Empire’s big paternal twist in one of Dagobah’s caves.
Endor
The opening scenes of Return of the Jedi took Star Wars fans back to the familiar desert environments of Tatooine, but the climactic sequence introduced them to a brand-new world: the forest moon of Endor. Han, Leia, and Chewie go down to Endor to shut down the shield generator while the Rebels prepare to blow up the Empire’s fancy new Death Star and Luke confronts Vader and the Emperor.
Some fans find Endor’s resident Ewoks annoying – and it’s easy to see why, because talking teddy bears are inherently cutesy – but using sticks and rocks to defeat the might of the Empire is an undeniably triumphant if far-fetched victory.
Bespin
The climactic set-piece of The Empire Strikes Back takes place in Cloud City, an airborne city on the planet Bespin. The steampunk aesthetic of this city in the clouds sets the perfect mood for the movie’s somber finale.
The shootouts between the Stormtroopers and the other Rebels are pure genre fun, but the carbonite freezing chamber sets a sumptuous, neon-lit backdrop for Vader’s brutal showdown against a hopelessly unprepared Luke.
Hoth
The opening scenes of The Empire Strikes Back re-immersed audiences in the pulpy world of a galaxy far, far away with an extended Rebel mission on the ice planet of Hoth. Snowy plains are a great setting for a gritty battle sequence, and the tough terrain gave the design team opportunities to create unique vehicles like the AT-AT walkers.
The harsh weather and extreme temperatures force the Rebels to go to extremes like sleeping inside a tauntaun, and the planet is full of unforgettable monsters like the wampa that drags Luke back to its cave.
Tatooine
Easily the most iconic planet in the Star Wars universe is Tatooine, where C-3PO and R2-D2 landed to deliver a message to Ben Kenobi at the beginning of the original 1977 movie. Tatooine might not be the most visually exciting planet in a galaxy far, far away – it was influenced by Frank Herbert’s vivid descriptions of Arrakis from the Dune books – but it’s the one that evokes the most nostalgia from the fan base. Fans are particularly fond of Mos Eisley Spaceport, a lawless frontier ripped straight from a western, and specifically the cantina, a shady saloon filled with gunslinging bounty hunters.
Narratively, the dull landscapes of Tatooine serve as a springboard into an intergalactic adventure across many vastly different worlds. The whole point is that Luke is fed up with the barren wasteland he was raised on and dreams of journeying into space and discovering new places.