Via Starwars.com:

DISCOVER SOME OF THE MOST FEARLESS AND INVENTIVE IDEAS CREATED FOR THE SPECIAL EDITIONS.
Seeming to recapture what had been lost during its mid-to-late ‘80s slump, the Star Wars property thrust itself back into pop culture in 1995, delivering a one-two punch with the remastered original trilogy on VHS and Kenner’s Power of the Force action figure line. Little did we know at the time that this was more than an attempt to jumpstart our nostalgia. Somewhere on a distant horizon was the latest installment in the saga, The Phantom Menace. Following the omnipresent Shadows of the Empire multimedia campaign (which bridged the gap between Episode V and VI), The Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition was released theatrically throughout the winter of 1997, commemorating the films’ 20th anniversary.

More importantly, the Special Editions gave creator-director George Lucas a chance to revisit the movies, utilizing the latest advancements in CGI to overcome and rectify the scenes he felt were hindered by visual effects limitations and other constraints. Conceptual artists approached the project with the same degree of zealous imagination as their creative forerunners, concocting all manner of wild ideas that could only be contained in the Star Wars universe. Nevertheless, not everything made it into the updated trilogy — and the following pieces of concept art are a few of those interesting enough to pique any fan’s interest.

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