Ever since the original Star Wars trilogy began hitting DVD in their Special Edition form, fans have been clamoring for the unaltered original versions to make the jump as well. Lucasfilm, still under the control of George Lucas, partially complied a long while back when they tossed them out unceremoniously on non-anamorphic DVD. Those releases have since gone out of print and these theatrical release versions of A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi have not yet been issued on Blu-ray.
The past few years have seen numerous false rumors pop up online stating that Disney is readying such a release, but all have been shot down. One of the biggest red flags on those rumors is the fact that Fox still controls the distribution (both theatrical and home video) of all three films. That will change in a few years time when Empire and Jedi revert back to Lucasfilm (and therefore Disney), but the original 1977 film (aka A New Hope) will forever remain with Fox.
Many fans had been hoping that we would receive proper high-definition releases of the films upon the films reverting back to Lucasfilm, perhaps in collaboration with Fox. According to Lucasfilm head honcho Kathleen Kennedy, that will not be happening…
“I wouldn’t touch those, are you kidding me? [laughs] Those will always remain his.”
Ouch. That statement, which was made to Omny FM, is sure to come as a huge blow to fans. The reality of the situation is that Lucas actually altered the original prints lying in the Lucasfilm archives. Any attempt to craft high-definition transfers for them would have to involve either private collectors or outside archives, as reconstructing the original versions on Lucasfilm’s end would take a lot of work. With Kennedy having little desire to make it happen at this time, chances are it never will, although she could eventually change her mind.
At this time, the only real hope fans have is that Fox decides to release those versions before they lose the rights. This is, of course, assuming that they have the legal right to do so without the permission of Lucasfilm. The sad realization now is that, outside of the bootleg market, there’s really no way of owning the original theatrical cuts for the foreseeable future. Sorry folks!
