Here’s a kind of convoluted rumor for you to chew on as we continue to wait for no news about Star Wars: Episode VII. According to an interesting e-mail we’ve intercepted, and which purports to come from within Disney’s marketing department, the studio are planning to re-release A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi on DVD/Blu-Ray/On Demand in their original form, without all the things George Lucas changed for the “Special Edition” releases back in 2004.
I want this so very, very badly. I will buy in a hearbeat. And yet, Devin Faraci over at Badass Digest brings me crashing back to reality with his comments on this very article.
Meanwhile, Bleeding Cool reports that Disney is gearing up to release Blu-rays of the Original Trilogy in their original forms - ie, no added scenes, no new FX. This feels like a no-brainer, as it’s just money waiting to enter Disney’s bank account. Everybody will buy these. But there are two problems with this report:
1) The report says that Disney is putting out A New Hope, and since Fox owns distribution rights for that movie this is unlikely - unless Disney plunked down a lot of money to buy them back. Which we would have heard about. Now, Fox will certainly play ball should Disney want to release a big box set, because money, but the wording of this rumor makes me suspicious.
Blargh. Come on now! Stop spoiling my fun! Can’t a guy dream big?
Back to Linda at Bleeding Cool:
Going forward and looking at the much bigger picture, there are more dubious rumors to consider, like Disney potentially phasing out the prequel trilogy by lumping them in with the “Legends” non-canon fodder. This has apparently been the subject of gossip near Disney, though it’s very possibly just that – gossip amongst the worker bees. Anyway, it would allow for a reboot of sorts, with new prequel movies featuring Yoda, Darth Vader, etc.
Yeah, that’s not going to happen. I wish it were going to happen, but it’s not. As much as I hate the prequels, Disney/Lucasfilm have already stated that all six films are cannon (contradictions and all), and too many people love them and grew up on them. So this is not happening. I won’t complain if it does though.