Star Wars: The Mandalorian Creator Jon Favreau Addresses the Release of Theatrical Cuts of Original Trilogy

While some Star Wars fans might be most excited for what stories will be told in the franchise’s future, some fans are merely hoping to get an official release of the theatrical cuts of the original trilogy, though The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau recently addressed how Lucasfilm, and a number of fans, are focused more on new stories than revisiting the past. The filmmaker detailed how, over the past 40 years, fans have been introduced to the saga through various trilogies, as well as TV shows, books, comic books, video games, and more, with the studio more interested in extending the saga than very specific versions of the debut films.

When asked by Moovy TV if Favreau had enough clout at Lucasfilm to get the theatrical cuts of the films released, Favreau explained, “Do you think anybody but us, the people who grew up with it, anybody would care? I know to … Younger people, that’s what I figured out, that the younger people have a whole different perception of what Star Wars is, each generation. For the millennials, it’s the prequels. Zoomers, sometimes it’s [Star Wars:] The Clone Wars. I’ve seen people come up to [Clone Wars creator] Dave Filoni and that’s their entree into it.” 

The filmmaker went on to detail that it was through keeping in mind the sprawling nature of the saga that the storytelling approach of The Mandalorian was conceived.

“And that’s part of what we wanted to do with The Mandalorian. Let’s try to do something that’s good for us, people who’ve been around watching these movies since they were 10 years old, and also, could we make it for new people who’ve never seen Star Wars,” Favreau expressed. “So we start with new characters. And that seems to have worked out pretty good, because I think there’s a lot of people who have checked this out that might not have been up on everything in all the material that’s been out. Because there is a lot now, there’s a lot to keep up on. I have a whole team, I have people from Lucasfilm and ILM, people who worked with George [Lucas]. It’s a full-time job just to keep track, keep everything straight, so for a casual fan, that’s really asking a lot for them to know what everything is.”

Back in the late ’90s, Lucas revisited his original trilogy of films to update the technical effects to the best available at the time, which also saw the inclusion of new scenes and expanded sequences. The last time the theatrical versions of the films were released in any official capacity was nearly 20 years ago, as the Special Edition trilogy’s release on DVD saw select versions including the theatrical versions as supplemental discs.

Given the number of HD upgrades classic films have been given over the years in the age of streaming and 4K, fans hope to see those theatrical releases earn a technical overhaul, but with Lucas himself claiming he prefers his Special Edition upgrades as opposed to the theatrical releases, Lucasfilm execs have been sharing for years that those original cuts won’t be released again.

New episodes of Season 3 of The Mandalorian premiere weekly on Disney+.

Do you want the theatrical cuts to be released? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!