Last February, Lucasfilm had initiated their plan to re-release both ‘Star Wars’ trilogies in 3D starting with ‘The Phantom Menace’, followed by ‘Attack of the Clones’ and ‘Revenge of the Sith’ with the latter two released back to back in theateres in fall 2013. However, a lot has changed in the galaxy that George Lucas built since then and it seems like the new management has different plans in mind.

According to Deadline, Disney cancelled the films due to the desire to focus on “rebooting the franchise”. ‘Episode I’ had received an underwhelming debut with only $23 million domestically, following in the trend of post-converted classics like ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and ‘Finding Nemo’ which failed to draw as well. However, it was still expected that we’d get to the Trilogy eventually, and numbers would rise. Apparently that’s no longer the case.

However, an official statement was released by StarWars.com later stating that the films haven’t been cancelled, but rather temporarily postponed. Check out the statement below:

“Lucasfilm has decided to postpone this fall’s scheduled release of ‘Star Wars’ Episodes II and III in 3D. Given the recent development that we are moving forward with a new ‘Star Wars’ trilogy, we will now focus 100 percent of our efforts on ‘Star Wars: Episode VII’ in order to ensure the best possible experience for our fans. We will post further information about our 3D release plans at a later date.”

My guess is that they’re waiting to release the films closer to the release of J.J. Abrams’ upcoming ‘Star Wars’ film. Although with five more movies to get through still, spacing them out over the course of the next few years wouldn’t have been a bad idea.

Also, since ‘Episodes II and III’ were scheduled for post-conversion a while ago, they’re probably nearing completion if not done already. I don’t think the studio will waste that and let those versions just sit on a shelf. What Disney is probably going to do is give them theatrical releases in between ‘Episodes VII and VIII’ or send them straight to Blu-Ray to promote the new film.

While I’m glad to hear that they’re completely committed to delivering the best possible ‘Star Wars’, I was really looking forward to seeing ‘Return of the Jedi’ in theaters. I might still get to, but I’m going to have to wait a while.

How do you feel about Disney postponing the rest of the ‘Star Wars’ 3D re-releases? Share your thoughts in the comments below!