joefavs said:

Assuming there weren't any of these hypothetical legal failsafes against a release of the unaltered trilogy embedded in the Disney deal, wouldn't it behoove Fox to put something out sooner rather than later? It's not like Disney's never going to release another box set, SE or otherwise, and since Fox owns ANH until the end of time, Disney is going to have to make some kind of deal with them to do it. Shouldn't Fox want to get the ball rolling on that while they still have the distribution rights to the other two films (which I believe move to Disney in 2020)? I'm legitimately asking, I don't even really know if this is how distribution rights work, but it does seem to me like it would be better for Fox if this release came while they control all three films rather than one.

Since the digital releases of Empire and Jedi didn't have the Fox fanfare, it's save to assume Disney and Fox already made some kind of deal. Also, there is this thread.

Danfun128 said:

joefavs said:

...and since Fox owns ANH until the end of time...

To this (umm...) day I still don't understand what that means. :P

It means that Fox owns the distribution rights for Star Wars forever, if they don't make a new deal. In contrast to the rights for Empire and Jedi, which will (or already did?) return to Lucasfilm.