Disney May Release Unmodifed Star Wars Trilogy On Blu-ray, But Probably Not

By Nick Venable | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

star warsThere are so many rumors swirling around involving J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: Episode VII that someone will probably need to build a second Internet to contain them all. And while we ponder who the Inquisitors are and what Han Solo is going to look like, an old chestnut of a rumor has resurfaced to provoke a new hope in everyone. According to sources close to ComicBook.com, Disney/Lucasfilm is finally planning on officially trotting out the original, untouched Star Wars trilogy on Blu-ray for the first time ever. Are you cheering? Jeering? Or maybe wisely laughing at the computer screen in jest?

To anyone who’s paid any attention to rumors of this sort in the past know that there is one hulking obstacle standing in the way of Disney’s Star Wars Blu-ray legitimacy: Disney doesn’t own the distribution rights to the original Star Wars trilogy. (Or the prequel trilogy for that matter, but absolutely no one is worried about getting those re-released.) 20th Century Fox currently holds the rights to all the films, and ComicBook.com makes no mention of them being involved. Now, Fox will eventually have to give up the rights to the prequels, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi in May 2020, so it’s technically feasible that Disney/Lucasfilm is planning to put the second two Star Wars films on Blu-ray in June 2020. But Fox will forever retain the rights to George Lucas’ first film, which means no Star Wars Blu-ray, original cut or otherwise, will ever come out without their say so.

Still, the report says “the project has been under way for quite some time, but it’s been challenging because of some damage to the original negatives they are utilizing.” That sounds like a perfectly plausible reason why this would take a long time to come out, but a more logical reason would be “George Lucas has made it publicly clear time and time again that he never wants the original cuts of the trilogy to ever find their way to an official release again. There are rumors that Lucas has forged a deal with Satan to take control of the souls of anyone who still has access to VHS and DVD copies of his unaltered films.” Maybe they’re from the same place that these rumors sprouted from?

han solo star warsAs far as a time period where these phantom Blu-rays might get released, Disney would likely be putting them out before Episode VII comes out in December 2015. I tell you what. If anyone out there is holding a copy of Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope in their hands whenever Abrams takes over the universe next year, then I will find Darth Vader and I will kick him in the balls. Good luck, young rebels.