Scanning in the parts of the negative that were cut out and then digitally reinserting them into the latest restoration sounds like a good idea on paper. But the big question I have is whether Reliance saved copies of intermediary steps in their restoration. Because normally, a restoration involves scanning, cleaning, then color correction. With Star Wars though, it’s been scanning, cleaning, then massive amounts of grain removal, then “proprietary enhancement” (I interpret this as sharpening), then color correction. And this might be a problem for assembling a theatrical cut if they didn’t save the pre-grain-removal versions. If all they’ve got is their enhanced versions, then the theatrical snips of the negative would also need to be treated in the same way to fit with the surrounding footage…but this sort of defeats the purpose of a theatrical version because “proprietary enhancement” with grain removal can’t really be considered pure or original.

So when Lucas says they’d need to spend a lot of time and money restoring the entire movies again, maybe there’s some truth to that if they didn’t save the cleaned-only versions of the latest restoration.