Disney+ Includes Star Wars Documentary Empire of Dreams About Original Trilogy

As part of their roll out for the Disney+ launch, Disney and Lucasfilm were able to secure one major and unsung pillar for Star Wars fans, the 2004 documentary Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Saga. The two-and-a-half-hour documentary focuses on the original trilogy of films and features interviews with George Lucas, Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and many more members of the cast and crew. Empire of Dreams was originally released with the debut of the original trilogy on DVD in 2004 and was ultimately edited down to 90 minutes for a broadcast on A&E. You can head to over to Disney+ to watch it now.

The film is described, “From the earliest versions of the script tot he blockbuster debuts, explore the creation of the Star Wars trilogy.”

Normally the inclusion of a behind-the-scenes look at movies, especially those as revered as the original Star Wars movies, wouldn’t be entirely newsworthy, but Empire of Dreams has had a shadowy history. Though previously available on Amazon Prime Video, this documentary is one piece of media in the franchise that has been incredibly difficult to track down.

When the original Star Wars trilogy arrived on DVD in 2004, it came in a four-disc set, with the extra disc containing Empire of Dreams and other supplemental materials. In 2005, a six-disc DVD set was release, with the Special Edition versions of the trilogy being on three of the discs while the original, unaltered films were included on the additional three discs.

In 2011, the entire saga was released on Blu-ray as either a nine-disc set featuring all six films and three discs of supplementary features or as trilogy sets featuring either the prequel or the original trilogy. Neither of the HD sets featured Empire of Dreams, though it did feature upgrades and alterations that Lucas made to the Special Editions. In the time since, Lucas has made yet another change to the original film in the series, something that wasn’t realized until the new version made its debut on Disney+.

Stay tuned for updates on the Star Wars franchise and head to over to Disney+ to watch Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Saga. You can also enjoy the first seven films in the Skywalker saga on the streaming service, plus Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Star Wars: The Last Jedi will be made available on Disney+ on December 19, 2020 (just in time for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker) with Solo: A Star Wars Story arriving on July 9, 2020.

If you haven’t checked out Disney+ yet and you want to give it a go, you can do that here.

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