Ever since Disney purchased Lucasfilm for the outrageous sum of $4 billion dollars rumors have been swirling that a re-release of the original theatrical cut of the first ‘Star Wars‘ trilogy was in the works and we’ve just learned that there are no plans for it. We’ve been pining for both a home and cinematic re-release of the unedited trilogy before George Lucas went back and butchered his practical effects with unnecessary CGI and added scenes and we’ve heard the rumor pop up almost yearly that it was going to happen.
The most recent rumor had this release happening to celebrate the 40th anniversary of ‘Star Wars’ which also isn’t going to happen.
The confirmation that this wouldn’t happen came directly from the Lucasfilm head honcho herself Kathleen Kennedy while on the Steele Wars Podcast who stated that:
“I wouldn’t touch those, are you kidding me? [laughs] Those will always remain his.”
She did go on to give us some positive news that there wasn’t an agreement with George Lucas on the purchase that would prevent either Lucasfilm or Disney from restoring the theatrical cuts but it isn’t something she would want to do. Hopefully, she’ll one day have a change of heart or the Disney Corporate Overlords will realize that fans around the world would happily pay for HD versions of the original trilogy without all of Lucas’s edits.
That being said, restoring the three would be a time consuming and expensive process as Lucas altered the original film prints when making his 1997 special editions. While the original pieces are still somewhere in the Lucasfilm archive, it would take a lot of work to restore them to their original form, and hopefully one day Disney will push for this to happen if Kennedy herself doesn’t decide it’s a good idea.
Are you crushed to hear that we won’t be getting an unedited version of the original trilogy anytime soon? Share your thoughts below!
Source: Screen Rant
Stuart Conover is an author, blogger, and all around geek. When not busy being a father and husband he tries to spend as much time as possible immersed in comic books, science fiction, and horror! Would you like to know more? Follow him on Twitter!
