Is Disney Gearing Up For Digital Releases Of Star Wars Episodes I-VI?
This article is more than 2 years old
While the world of live-action Star Wars adventures is currently being bogged down with spoilers, rumors, and rampant speculation, let’s not forget that there are six other Star Wars movies that aren’t done inspiring their own rumors just yet. Ever since Disney first bought up Lucasfilm, there have been murmurings about the possibility of the company re-releasing Episodes I-VI in some format, though legal issues with rights holder Twentieth Century Fox have stood in the way. Until now, possibly. Check out the video below, and sorry that it’s in Italian.
As you may or may not have been able to tell, this is an advertisement for Disney’s digital services, on which people can watch videos for Disney TV shows like Phineas and Ferb and Ultimate Spider-Man, as well as movies like Saving Mr. Banks and Frozen. And as you may have noticed, the person in the video is also seen watching clips from several different Star Wars movies, which seems more concrete than a pinkie swear from Mickey Mouse that Disney will somehow be putting the epic franchise out there at some point. You might want to avoid watching the first trilogy on your phone though, as Han Solo’s personality cannot be modified to fit your screen. But feel free to watch Hayden Christensen on it.
According to the translation provided by Film Divider, the audio basically just touts all of the Disney characters that await audiences, and that apps and games and stuff are available from your PC, tablets, and smartphones. Star Wars doesn’t get specifically name checked, and you’d think they’d be screaming about this being available through Disney for the first time. Or that some other announcement would have been made about it already. What’s the story here?
Star Wars fans have been anticipating — both positively and negatively — a repackaging of the existing films through Disney, with the golden calf of rumors being a Blu-ray collection of the original trilogy before George Lucas tinkered with the movies for the re-releases. Earlier this year, Disney unveiled their mobile apps coinciding with the movies, so one has to assume the future will involve these flicks entering the Disney vault for a spell.
Could a digital-only release be the first step in getting a bigger deal made between Disney and Twentieth Century Fox for physical media down the road? Will Italy be the only country in the world where it happens?
