Lots of mistakes have been made in the handling of the Star Wars franchise over the years, but one of the most egregious is the release of "Special Editions" of the original Star Wars trilogy, which feature digital additions that do nothing to benefit the movies. If you want a good breakdown of what I'm talking about, go over to Red Letter Media and watch some of their videos. The Mr. Plinkett Prequel Trilogy reviews are brilliant and there's a good video in their Half in the Bag series that goes into details about the Special Editions and why they're awful. But for the sake of being concise, here's all you need to know- George Lucas added a bunch of crap to the original Star Wars films, giving them a fake digital look, and in the years since, the theatrical cuts have not been released. Lucas defends the Special Editions, but for the most part, fans have lambasted them for hurting, not helping, the quality of the films. Fans have begged Lucas for years to release the original editions in all their glory on Blu-Ray, but he has never budged. Now, according to another contemporary, Lucas may have had a change of heart.
In an interview at Universal Studios Orlando, director John Landis (An American Werewolf in London, Animal House) said "Did you know Disney, by the way, is putting out the original Star Wars the way it was?" Now, there has been no confirmation from anyone official here, but that's solid evidence to me, considering that Landis is on record saying that he heard that from Lucas himself. While there is a massive rights issue with Fox and the original trilogy, Disney could solve those problems with ease. However, Anthony Breznican, EW reporter and notorious Star Wars source (he's been the bearer of bad trailer news for all Star Wars fans for the last few months), later said to "beware of anything that says Disney is releasing original Star Wars." I don't know if Breznican knows anything or not, but he brings up an important point- this is currently just a rumor, and there's no physical evidence from anyone involved that this is actually happening. Disney has been very hush-hush with anything related to a galaxy far, far away so far, and with something like this that means so much to fans, I can imagine that if they do have any serious plans, they'll keep them under wraps until just the right moment. But with Star Wars: The Force Awakens on the horizon, this seems like a smart business move for Disney.
Source: Collider
Image Credits: Hollywood Reporter, Screen Rant
Image Credits: Hollywood Reporter, Screen Rant
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