They’d still have to do the other two, though. And at that point, why wouldn’t they just do all three? Especially since they already have access to the material they need in a higher quality than theatrical release prints.
If I’m wrong, I’ll be happy to be wrong, because it means the original versions finally got a proper home theater release, no matter what. Although I’m certain there’ll be something that jumps out at the eagle-eyes among us that necessitates further fan-restoration is needed. But at least at that point we’d be working from a very high-quality 4k source to make whatever changes need to be made.
But I don’t see Lucasfilm releasing the original versions and using Verta’s fan-restoration as part of them.
Listen, I as much as you hope they do a proper restoration using the actual elements. But also, corporations are lazy. It’s not implausible to suggest they might take the easiest possible route when given the option.
If they’re taking screenshots from Vimeo previews for their books, how is that a sign of anything deeper or more troubling? Deeper or more troubling than what? It’s a tie-in book that probably won’t really sell a whole lot to anyone who isn’t already a superfan. What signs are you seeing in the decision by an editor or graphic designer to use a frame from a Vimeo screencap that are so troubling?
If Lucasfilm continues to have to go to fan restorations they found on YouTube over actually restoring the film, then there’s something wrong there. Film history is being ignored because fans posted clips somewhere? What if they accidentally use Revisited or any of the other fan edits that are right next to it online? Why would they know to reference Legacy if they didn’t have Legacy on hand?
Something to consider though, it’s not an altogether unlikely an explanation that the people writing these books are as much a fan as we are, and specifically sought out the Legacy clip to use for the book. You could even say that this is the Occam’s razor explanation - the shot from Legacy is arguably the highest quality clean still of that shot out there, which is why it might have been used.
Important to note as well, the writers do not technically work for LFL, they work for Haynes publishing.