I think, given the history of this possibility, skepticism is understandable. Don’t count your eggs until they hatch, don’t celebrate with too much confidence until Disney actually makes it official.
I’m not saying it isn’t understandable - I’ve been pretty up front all throughout the thread about how I understand the actual decades of habit and/or ritual, coming to bear on a lot of this. I’m not trying to shame people for being skeptical and/or pessimistic.
I’m only really pointing it out as relevant context for why the reactions are muted, and why - with these muted reactions (and attendant weirdness to boot) the insistence on standard leaks about something that’s been in the works for about 3+ years now and is GOING to be a thing in 2027, maybe shouldn’t be treated as an existential threat to the degree people seem to be doing in the two places online centered on the original theatrical cuts.
A company accidentally leaking work-in-progress clips of the restoration to a public youtube channel, especially when reaction to it is basically a blip at most, isn’t going to get the whole thing canceled when it’s been budgeted on a 5yr schedule and 3 of that has already gone forward, and at this point the 50th has been officially announced. I don’t think its a lot of worth in refocusing attention off the actual restoration or the 50th, and onto a mostly non-existent possibility that this leak is going to get everything canceled and ruined.
And further - considering the thread is called “hopes and expectations” I don’t know that expressing or focusing ON hopes and now allowing oneself to HAVE expectations should be such a scary proposition, LOL. It’s the 50th Anniversary! If you’re gonna let yourself hope, why not now? It’s just Star Wars.