The Death Star Human Resources Department: Urgent Bulletin
My winter break lasts approximately 10 hours
So of course Star Wars drops some big news right after the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter goes on winter break. I’m not saying that Bob Iger was trying to punish me for my support of the Ben Solo Lives movement, but I’m not discounting it either. It has been known for a while now that A New Hope is coming back to the theaters in 2027 for the 50th anniversary of Star Wars.
What hasn’t been known is which version of A New Hope we were going to get. Would it be the Special Editions from 1997? Or would it be an OG version without CGI Jabba and where Han still shoots first? There was a lot of thoughts, prayers, and hope that it would be the 1977 cut. Earlier this summer an original cut was shown for two screenings at the British Film Institute’s festival, which lead a lot of people to think that if our friends across the pond got to see the original, than surely we Americans should get to it see.
Well, we found out today that it’s going to be the original 1977 cut, fully restored and in your local movie theater.
Straight from the mouth of StarWars.com itself:
On February 19, 2027, we’ll celebrate the 50th anniversary of Star Wars with a re-release of the 1977 original back for a limited time, in theaters everywhere.
Part of Lucasfilm’s yearlong 50th anniversary celebration, a newly restored version of the classic Star Wars(1977) theatrical release — later renamed Star Wars: A New Hope — will play in theaters for a limited time.
I’m not the only one who thought this, obviously. But back in October when I last wrote about the possibility of an original cut release, my thoughts were “that almost certainly means we’re going to see the 1977 cut in 2027.”
It is an interesting release date. Probably selected because February is generally a dead zone for new movie releases, so there was some calendar space available. It was originally reported the movie would be released April 30th, 2027, leading into May the 4th weekend. Star Wars Celebration 2027 takes place at the beginning of April and then the Shawn Levy directed Starwars: Starfighter comes out May 28th. Pushing the A New Hope release back to February gives a little breathing room, I guess. It also opens up May the 4th week for something else if Star Wars wants to. 2027 just happens to be the 25th anniversary of Attack of the Clones and now May the 4th is free. I’m just saying…
Back in December 2023, I wrote about getting Special Edition Pilled. I had picked up the Return of the Jedi soundtrack and listening to “Lapti Nek” and “Yub Nub” for the first time in years got me thinking about when was the last time I’ve seen the Original Trilogy in non-Special Edition form.
Which then got me thinking, when is the last time I saw the Original Trilogy in its original, non-Special Edition, format? I honestly cannot say. The Special Editions hit the theaters in 1997. I purchased, and still have, the Special Editions on VHS. Then two years later The Phantom Menace came out and a year after that, DVD’s became a thing. The non-Special Editions were lost to time and changing media formats. It’s entirely possible that I haven’t see A New Hope where Han drops Greedo in roughly 25 years. I’ve just accepted the Special Editions because Lucas and Disney and VHS players going away have forced my hand.
So I’ll throw this out to the audience. When’s the last time you’ve seen the Original Trilogy in it’s pre-Special Edition form?
The last time I saw the OG was sometime in 1978, the last of the 26 times I paid to watch it at a theater.
I have seen the "de-specialized" fan edit since, but that doesn't really count.
I can't remember if it was before COVID or during, so I will say that it's been about 5 years (give or take) since I saw the original versions of the trilogy. They were those limited edition DVDs released almost 20 years ago.