With the announcement earlier this month that Zack Snyder’s Justice League would be coming to HBO Max in 2021, fans of a number of franchises are calling for the release of unseen, alternate, and extended cuts of films, such as a petition for the release of a four-hour cut of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith earning 15,000 signatures. The petition itself was launched last summer and, while there is no direct mention of Zack Snyder’s cut of a film he abandoned, the petition earning so many signatures recently would seem to confirm a connection to the interest of fans campaigning for unreleased material to be made public.
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“Hello there! The original Star Wars: Revenge of The Sith (2005) cut was over four hours long, and we think that George Lucas should do the right thing and give the fans what we deserve and what is rightfully ours,” the petition reads. “We love democracy, and we hope he does too. By signing this you are letting your voices be heard. If this petition does go viral, then we will have unlimited power and if George does the right thing then he would be strong and wise and we would all be very proud of him. This whole operation is our idea and we need to ensure that it is done. We will proclaim ah, victory when we achieve our goal. May the force be with you all and have faith.”
Despite the petition confidently claiming there is a four-hour cut of the film, there’s no evidence that Lucas created such a massive film, as compared to Snyder regularly detailing just how different the theatrical film was from what he initially planned. In this regard, it’s unclear how this fan came to arrive at this specific number, though it’s possible that this is a rough estimate of all of the various deleted scenes and animatics that have been unveiled were added to the theatrical release’s run time. Even then, the theatrical cut runs two hours and 20 minutes, with a four-hour cut implying there was more than 90 minutes of scrapped footage.
Additionally, the petition is targetted towards George Lucas as opposed to Lucasfilm, who owns the rights to the series, so it would seem there is an abundance of conflicting information, yet 15,000 people still hope their efforts could lead towards the nonexistent project’s release.
Given that fans had been campaigning for more than two years for the release of the “Snyder Cut” of Justice League, ultimately leading towards the unthinkable becoming a reality, this likely will just be the beginning of more fans making their voices heard about more projects being unveiled.
Would you like to see more Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith footage released? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!