Jon Favreau was doing a press tour for season 3 of The Mandalorian, and was asked about the original theatrical version of the Original Trilogy:
Moovy TV: “I know this is a bit of a ‘hot potato subject’, but don’t you have enough clout at Lucasfilm now to get the original theatrical editions re-released? I want to see Sebastian Shaw’s ghost in high definition!”
Jon Favreau: “Do you think anybody but us, the people who grew up with it, anybody would care? Because I know to younger people, that’s what I figured out, that the younger people have a whole different perception of what Star Wars is, each generation. For the millennials, it’s the Prequels. Zoomers, sometimes it’s The Clone Wars. I’ve seen people come up to Dave Filoni and that’s their entree into it.”
Favreau then brought the conversation back to The Mandalorian.
The video of the conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffbgwHqbdJ0 (1+ minute long)
What a disappointing response from him. I also found it a little narrow minded. That people from different generations do not want to watch releases from a different era? To not want to watch what their parents saw. Or to see what the original films were like? The version that won so many awards and changed special effects in films. Film history preserved?
And why shouldn’t older fans wanting to see that original version in HD or 4K be enough of a reason? Why not have the choice for fans to be able to watch all the different versions? Ugh.
Jon Favreau is kind of right though. I mean, I’m an older millennial that grew up with the OT. I saw the Prequels as a teenager and I hated them. They did not fit my perception of what Star Wars should be at all. But nowadays I’ve learned that many younger people see the Prequels as the reference point for what Star Wars is. I never thought that would happen, but here we are.
I do agree it would be nice to have the originals preserved in 4K, mostly for historical interest, to see exactly what 1970s audiences saw. But all of the shots that blew everyone away in 1977 are still there. That’s the irony of the Special Editions. Most of the added stuff ended up making the film look worse, because it looks like 90s CGI and thus aged worse than the original effects from the 70s.