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The Star Wars that George Lucas didn't want you to see is coming to the big screen [1]

['Allan Rose Hill']

Date: 2025-04-16

Since its original 1977 release, George Lucas has tweaked the first Star Wars film many times. From enhancing the space battle special effects to adding a digital Jabba, there have been myriad alterations since the movie premiered in theaters. Now though, the original cut will make its way to the big screen for the first time in nearly 50 years.

In a 2004 interview, Lucas explained why that first version hasn't been screened since December 1978.

"The Special Edition, that's the one I wanted out there. The other movie, it's on VHS, if anybody wants it," he told the Associated Prsss. "I'm not going to spend the — we're talking millions of dollars here — the money and the time to refurbish that, because to me, it doesn't really exist anymore. It's like this is the movie I wanted it to be, and I'm sorry you saw a half-completed film and fell in love with it. But I want it to be the way I want it to be. I'm the one who has to take responsibility for it. I'm the one who has to have everybody throw rocks at me all the time, so at least if they're going to throw rocks at me, they're going to throw rocks at me for something I love rather than something I think is not very good, or at least something I think is not finished."

In June, the British Film Institute's Film on Film Festival will show one of the last preserved Technicolor prints of the original film.

From The Telegraph:

For the last four decades, the print has sat at a temperature of -5 degrees in the BFI's Master Film Store near Gaydon in Warwickshire. But following negotiations with both Disney and Lucasfilm, it has been allowed out for public exhibition, just twice, back to back, on the festival's opening night[…] There are, however, no further screenings planned – for now. "After opening night, it's going straight back to the Master Film Store and those sub-zero conditions," [festival director James] Bell says. Meanwhile, fans around the world will be wondering if Disney and Lucasfilm's previously permafrost-hard line might finally be starting to thaw.

Previously:

• What it was really like to see Star Wars in 1977



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