To mark a monumental occasion, some people go on a vacation; others go to a nice dinner or throw a party. For Star Wars, it’s celebrating its 50th anniversary by going back to the movies. Disney just announced it will re-release George Lucas’ original Star Wars in theaters on April 30, 2027. That’s about a month ahead of the actual anniversary on May 25, 2027, but that weekend is reserved for a brand new Star Wars film, Star Wars: Starfighter, starring Ryan Gosling.
The rerelease will also come a few short weeks after Star Wars Celebration Los Angeles, which takes place from April 1 to 4, 2027. With this all teed up, you can imagine Lucasfilm will promote the heck out of it at that event, maybe even bringing some of the original cast and crew together again.
What’s unclear, at least now almost two years away, is which version of the film will come to theaters. The prevailing thought is it’ll be the 1997 Special Edition, George Lucas’ preferred version of the movie, with those added scenes and enhancements. However, just last month, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy was on hand for a very rare screening of an original print of Star Wars, long before anything was changed on it. Not even “Episode IV: A New Hope.” Maybe, just maybe, that’s a tease of what’s to come.
Or, with so much time, maybe it’s some kind of blend of the two. A new restoration of the original, unaltered film. That, surely, would have fans more excited than anything else.
The story of a young farm boy (Mark Hamill) who finds himself on a galaxy-spanning adventure to save a princess (Carrie Fisher) along with his mentor (Alec Guinness) and a daring pilot (Harrison Ford), Star Wars is one of the most influential and popular films of all time. It spawned two immediate sequels, three prequels, and then three more sequels over the past four-plus decades. Oh, and some shows and books and comics and games and toys and stuff too.
Which version of A New Hope do you hope is in theaters? Are you definitely going to go? Let us know.
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