Is it just me or were the SEs hated far more before Lucas sold Star Wars to Disney? When Lucas owned Star Wars, everyone was saying “the evil Lucas is holding back the awesome OOT and shoving the awful SEs down our throats.” When Lucas sold to Disney, people switched to saying, “Disney wants to give us the awesome SEs but a small group of fans is trying to shove the awful OOT down our throats.”
There has always been a segment of the fandom that likes the SE’s. (Some have even gone out of their way to deride this site.) They don’t even want a world where both versions sit side by side and people can choose what to watch.
The general public is less aware of the situation, as the movies haven’t been referred to as Special Editions since 1997.
And this is why I slightly worry.
Who is actively - what’s the word - lobbying for this?
Save Star Wars has gone down - the general public know less and less - and nobody whatsoever mentions this at Lucasfilm any more.
Are we in danger that the quality of Harmy and other restorations is counter productive to Disney restoring it?
But then: look at the attention the recent Landis rumour got. The movie sites all picked it up, but so did some mainstream news sites, including Forbes…