Mean Girls and 10 other films and TV shows edited after their release

There is perhaps no one more famous for changing their work after it’s already been released than George Lucas. Lucas has made to different editions of Star Wars, ranging from minor edits to major overhauls. The shootout between Greedo and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) is one of the most notorious within Star Wars fandom. A more visible change for those less in the know about Jedi lore is the conclusion of Return Of The Jedi, when the spirits of Anakin, Yoda, and Obi-Wan appear; in the theatrical version, Anakin was played by Sebastian Shaw, but on the 2004 special edition DVD release, it’s Hayden Christensen, who played a younger Anakin in the prequel trilogy. “To me, the special edition ones are the films I wanted to make. Anybody that makes films knows the film is never finished. It’s abandoned or it’s ripped out of your hands, and it’s thrown into the marketplace, never finished,” Lucas told . “I wanted to actually finish the film the way it was meant to be when I was originally doing it.” [Mary Kate Carr]

In 2022, Stranger Things fans suspected that parts of the show may have been edited, including a scene of Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) photographing Nancy (Natalia Dyer) from outside her window while she undressed. That change may have been a Mandela Effect, as the official Twitter/X page of the Stranger Things writers room “no scenes from previous seasons have ever been cut or re-edited.” Yet showrunners Matt and Ross Duffer told they’ve “George Lucas’d things also that people don’t know about.” The duo planned to edit previous scenes to rectify that they’d forgotten Will Byers’ birthday; the outlet also reported that the show’s VFX was still being updated in the weeks after the fourth season premiere “because the Duffer brothers want the show to be as perfect as possible.” [Mary Kate Carr]

didn’t exactly rock the world upon its release in 2018, but the family-friendly film did face an unexpected controversy. The film is about an NYPD Rottweiler who goes undercover at a dog show, and in one scene—as happens at dog shows—the dog has its testicles examined. The dog is uncomfortable, but gets through the moment by having what The A.V. Club called a “quasi-psychedelic vision” in our review. But parenting and conservative groups took issue with this depiction, arguing that it made kids more susceptible to grooming if a movie showed a character acquiesce to non-consensual groping. The backlash prompted an apology from the production company, which eventually released a statement saying, “Responding to concerns raised by moviegoers and some specific organizations, Global Road Entertainment has decided to remove two scenes from the film Show Dogs that some have deemed not appropriate for children. The company takes these matters very seriously and remains committed to providing quality entertainment for the intended audiences based on the film’s rating. We apologize to anybody who feels the original version of Show Dogs sent an inappropriate message.” [Mary Kate Carr]

There’s a lot of lore about secret naughty images snuck into Disney animated movies, but in 1999 the company was actually forced to recall the home video version of The Rescuers because of an “objectionable background image,” per . Played at a certain speed, audiences noticed—in just two frames of the film!—an image of a topless woman in a window. The sneaky pseudo-pornographic pic had been part of the movie for 20 years, but it was basically invisible in the theatrical release, and no one noticed it until that home video edition. The lewd lady was taken out of future releases, and you certainly won’t find her in the Disney+ version. [Mary Kate Carr]

Shortly after 2001: A Space Odyssey premiered in 1968, Stanley Kubrick went back into the editing bay and removed about 17 minutes from the film, apparently due to perceived pacing issues. That chunk of the movie would likely be a gold mine to any film buff, but it’s been for years—just how Kubrick would want it, according to his close colleagues. “I truly believe that they should absolutely not do anything to interfere with the film as it is now,” Kurick’s collaborator Leon Vitali told . “If anybody has that kind of material, I would hope they’d say, ‘There’s a reason why he didn’t use it.’” [Mary Kate Carr]

Bird Box, starring Sandra Bullock, was a big event film for Netflix in 2019. But in portraying the film’s fictional apocalypse, the streamer accidentally touched a real-life nerve. Stock footage used to depict disaster was taken from a real disaster, the deadly 2013 train crash in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec. Though the streamer faced a lot of criticism for its insensitivity in using the footage of an event that killed an estimated 47 people, Netflix initially declined to make any changes to the film. Eventually, though, the company bowed to pressure: “Netflix and the filmmakers of ‘Bird Box’ have decided to replace the clip,” a spokesperson said in a statement to . “We’re sorry for any pain caused to the Lac-Mégantic community.” [Mary Kate Carr]