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.
Actually a lot of the information is public (some is right out of Disney’s 10K).
Check the distribution section here (which is well footnoted):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucasfilm
“20th Century Fox, the original distributor of the first six Star Wars films, still retains the physical distribution rights to the original two Star Wars trilogies, currently owning permanent full distribution rights for the original 1977 film, while also holding the theatrical and home video distribution rights to Episodes I–III, V, and VI until May 2020.[34] Lucasfilm retains the television and digital distribution rights to all the Star Wars films except the original.[35] In December 2013, Walt Disney Studios purchased the distribution and marketing rights to future Indiana Jones films from Paramount Pictures, although the latter studio will retain the distribution rights to first four films and will receive “financial participation” from any additional films.[36][37]”