For almost fifty years, Star Wars has not only been one of the central pieces of pop culture media across the entire world but also served as the springboard for countless other projects, careers, and companies that would go on to change everything. From becoming one of the first movies that defined the “blockbuster” era, to being the reason ILM as a visual effects company exists, to putting Harrison Ford on the path toward becoming Indiana Jones, the influence of Star Wars goes so much further than inspiring young fans to buy toys. That’s what makes the prospect of Star Wars returning to theaters again so tantalizing for fans.
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Next year will mark the official 50th anniversary of the debut of Star Wars, George Lucas’ 1977 movie that has since become the focal point of one of the biggest media franchises of all-time. Though a new movie in the franchise is set to debut in theaters with Star Wars: Starfighter on May 28, 2027, three days after the actual anniversary date, Disney and Lucasfilm are actually releasing the original Star Wars back into theaters in February, but even more exciting than just another re-release of the classic movie is that this will actually be a remastered version of the original theatrical cut, meaning multiple generations of fans will finally get to see a version of Star Wars that hasn’t been around for decades.
The Original Cut of Star Wars Has Been Mostly Unseen for Decades
When Star Wars was released on May 25, 1977, the film changed everything, but what fans couldn’t have accounted for following its initial success was how the movie itself would also change over the years. Although edits to movies after they’ve already been released weren’t entirely unheard of at the time, George Lucas would continue to make changes, edits, and alterations to Star Wars for years after its debut, so much so that his name became a verb for other filmmakers to indicate their desire to change something.
It’s worth noting that when Star Wars debuted, Lucas naturally had plenty of ideas for expanding and telling more stories, but the original cut of the film is missing two key details that have since become staples of the movie itself, and they’re both found in the opening seconds. Just five words: “Episode IV: A New Hope.” When Star Wars first debuted, it simply said “Star Wars” on screen, and then the crawl began to fly up and give the audience all the context they needed.
Four years after Star Wars was released, and a year after the first sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, debuted, the film was re-released to add these changes, but these aren’t even the first changes that were made to the film. Between the initial release of Star Wars in May and the wider release later that year, minor changes were made to the movie, most of which were visual effects alterations, but also a change to the end credits.
George Lucas’ Changes to Star Wars Stacked Up Over the Years
George Lucas’ changes to Star Wars have been well documented over the years, some of which have created a marketplace for gaudy graphic tees and created culture wars over the ownership of a movie by a filmmaker. In 1997, when the “Special Editions” of the original trilogy were released, they included a slew of changes, updates, and alterations, most notably giving birth to the “Han shot first” campaign that defined decades of Star Wars fandom.
In short, the original cut of Star Wars (the one that you will presumably be able to see next year) saw Han’s confrontation with the bounty hunter Greedo go a different way, with Ford’s character pulling out his gun and shooting Greedo. The intention behind this was that Solo was akin to a western gunslinger, but also an unpredictable renegade, and Lucas made the change years later so that Solo could be seen as a better role model for kids, one who was acting in self-defense.
To make Lucas’ reputation for changing Star Wars even funnier, though, was he wasn’t done changing it. After the filmmaker sold Lucasfilm and the rights to the franchise to Disney, fans thought this would be the way to finally get to see the original version of the movie in wide circulation, that the things Lucas had “ruined” would be made right (this is, of course, a totally separate thing to dissect in how fans quickly went the other way).
After Lucas left the company behind, though, Star Wars made its debut on Disney+, and Lucas got the last laugh. The film had been altered yet again, including a few visual effects changes, but with the addition of a new line of dialogue to the Han Solo and Greedo scene, with the bounty hunter offering the now much-memed line, “ma klounkee.”
To that end, the version that fans saw in the earliest days of Star Wars‘ release in May of 1977 was one of the last times that it was actually seen by the masses. Since then, almost every time the movie has been screened in theaters, aired on television, released on home media, or streamed on a new service, it has been a totally different version. As a result, the Star Wars that returns to theaters on February 19, 2027, will mark the first time the original version has been seen by millions of fans…assuming that it’s actually a remaster of the VERY original cut of the film. Rest assured, mega-fans will know.
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