It’s been an exhausting battle to secure the unaltered theatrical cuts of the original Star Wars trilogy in a digital format. A long, horrible war full of frustrated fans, deceitful releases claiming to have the real thing, and ambitious fan editors defying the Sith overlords. Could the dust be settling with Disney ready to surrender? Comicbook.com and its sources seem to think so.
Comicbook.com claims that “two independent reliable sources” have confirmed Disney is working on the project of bringing the unaltered trilogy to Blu-ray. Gone are the days of having to see Hayden Christensen at the end of Return of the Jedi, hear Vader scream “Nooooooo” as he tosses the Emperor to his doom, plug our ears during Jedi Rocks, or tolerating Boba Fett’s wannabe voice. It’s all in the past.
Best of all, you’ll never have to experience Greedo shooting first ever again, that is, unless you choose to.
In other words, we did it!
Comicbook.com‘s sources also say that the project is taking longer that excepted due to damage to the negatives.
According to our sources, Disney has plans to release the original cut of the Star Wars trilogy on Blu-ray. Our sources indicate that the project has been under way for quite some time, but it’s been challenging because of some damage to the original negatives they are utilizing. The goal is to release A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of Jedi in their complete, unaltered, original form without the redone special edition SFX.
Speculate away! Will this happen? Are Lucas’ artistic rights being trampled? Are the people who defended his right to deny the unaltered release going to retract their beliefs? Is satisfying the demand of neglected fans the right path to take? Are there any other legal hurdles? Is this just smoke in our faces and not going to pan out?
This is pretty big news bound to inspire skepticism and excitement all across the spectrum, but I’ll take any good news at this point.
Source: Comicbook.com
Via: Polygon