It’s not like Lucasfilm hasn’t altered ROTJ multiple times after the director passed away… Am I the only one who sees the hypocrisy there?
Also - why would they do any release prior to 2020? Spending a bunch of money on an OT restoration and having to split the money from TESB and ROTJ with Fox is just stupid. I still don’t know why anyone is expecting anything to happen prior to the rights reverting
First of all, none of us know what kind of distribution deal Fox has, nor what kind of money we’re talking about here. It may not be an issue at all.
By releasing them this year, on the 40th anniversary, they have a huge, built-in marketing message and can take advantage of all of the current hoopla surrounding the anniversary.
I’m not completely ruling out a release this year until May 25th has come and gone, although if we haven’t heard anything by May 4th I’d say the chances are next to zero.
As for the deal with Fox, we may not know the fine details (I did find it curious that Disney was mentioned at all alongside Fox and LFL in the press release for the 2015 blu-ray reissue), but we do know that Fox retains distribution on ANH forever and that the rights to the other five revert fully to LFL in May of 2020.