So I’ve asked this question before (don’t remember which thread, sorry) but I don’t quite understand the current state of the Star Wars O-negatives. I know that Lucasfilm has stated that the original negatives have been conformed to the special editions. To me, a layman who knows very little about how films are produced and restored, this sounds like the original negatives are gone, at least the frames that initially contained non-special edition alterations.

I’m aware of the clean up that happened in the 90s, because the film was in bad shape. So as far as I understand things, the original negatives were scanned digitally, cleaned up, and then used as the basis for the special editions as well as the 1993 release.

I’ve heard people say on this forum that we know that Lucasfilm has preserved everything. If every original negative, interpositive, composite master, etc. has been preserved, then I don’t see how the O-neg can be conformed to the special edition.