Thanks to multiple sources, it looks like April 10 may be the day that the Star Wars films finally come to digital platforms.
For some time now rumors have been circulating that the release of Star Wars films on digital platforms would be announced at the upcoming Star Wars Celebration with a release date of May 4, also considered international Star Wars day by many. But then on April 1 YakFace.com obtained an image of a poster that appeared to have been put up in a Walmart a bit too early.
The poster was the first hint, but seeing as it was April 1, and the vudu.com/starwars URL was not working, everyone took it with a grain of salt.
The URL still doesn’t work, but then another URL was found that showed the artwork you see at the top of the post listing purchasing a bundle of the films. The artwork is now gone, but it does not return a 404 error page like the other one does.
As for the special features the Vudu page did list at one time in the bundle, here is a list of what those are said to include.
- Deleted scenes for all six films
- The Beginning Making of Episode I documentary
- The Podrace, theatrical edit
- Conversations: Doug Chiang Looks Back
- Discoveries from Inside: Models and Miniatures
- From Puppets to Pixels: Digital Characters in Episode II feature-length documentary
- State of the Art: The Previsualization of Episode II
- Films Are Not Released, They Escape documentary
- Episode II Visual Effects Breakdown Montage
- Conversations: Sound in Space
- Discoveries from Inside: Costumes Revealed
- Within a Minute: The Making of Episode III feature-length documentary
- The Journey
- ILM Episode III Siggraph Reel
- Conversations: The Star Wars That Almost Was
- Discoveries from Inside: Hologram and Bloopers
- Anatomy of a Dewback
- Star Wars Launch Trailer
- Conversations: Creating a Universe
- A Conversation with the Masters (2010)
- George Lucas on Editing The Empire Strikes Back (1979)
- George Lucas on the Force (2010)
- Dennis Muran: How Walkers Walk
- Conversations: The Lost Interview
- Discoveries from Inside: Matte Paintings Revealed
- Classic Creatures: Return of the Jedi
- Trailers and TV Spots
- Discoveries from Inside: The Sounds of Ben Burtt
- Conversations: The Effects
The final piece of evidence that the digital release is imminent is that “Digital Release Commemorative Collection Sets” of action figures have begun appearing. There are six sets in total, each themed around one of the films.
As for all evidence that has surfaced pointing to Vudu, it seems unlikely that will be the only platform the films will appear on once released. It’s just the platform with the highest chance of someone slipping up as there are thousands of Walmart stores in need of signs.
The biggest question now is why April 10? With a huge Star Wars event the following week, why not announce the films there as had been rumored? Perhaps April 10 is indeed incorrect, but the evidence has certainly mounted that we will soon be able to take a galaxy far, far away with us wherever we choose.
We only have a few days to wait to see if the rumors are true.
UPDATE: The story has been confirmed.