Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Saga Documentary Now on Amazon Prime Video

Between Netflix and the upcoming Disney+ streaming service, the various entries in the Star Wars franchise are scattered across the internet, though the 2004 documentary Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Saga is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. 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 Amazon’s website to watch now.

The film is described, “An in-depth making-of documentary about the original Star Wars trilogy, covering the productions of the three films and their impact on popular culture.”

While the debut of a film on a streaming service isn’t always newsworthy, when it comes to Star Wars and its complicated home video release strategy, this documentary is one piece of media in the franchise that’s more 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.

Disney struck a deal with Netflix for access to the films they had produced following their purchase of Lucasfilm, leading to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and Solo: A Star Wars Story having been available on the service at various times. When Disney+ launches on November 12th, the first seven films and Rogue One will be available on the service, with the rest expected to land on the service within the year.

It’s unclear exactly how this specific piece of Lucasfilm content has slipped through the cracks to be available on Amazon Prime Video, allowing subscribers to watch it for free. It’s possible that, with 20th Century Fox having distributed the films prior to Lucasfilm that this specific piece of Lucasfilm content fell outside of various agreements, allowing it to appear on this streaming service, if only briefly.

Regardless of why it’s there, Star Wars fans with Amazon Prime accounts will surely appreciate this in-depth look into the development of the original trilogy, even if it only exists in Standard Definition.

Stay tuned for updates on the Star Wars franchise and head over to Amazon to watch Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Saga.

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