What will be the next physical home media release of the Original Trilogy?

Disney+ seems to be the preferred and profitable way of releasing new Star Wars content. Though for the main films the disc releases in 2020, (4K/UHD, blu-ray and even DVD), were the latest physical home media releases of the OT.

But what do you think will be next physical release for the OT?

A boxset with the unaltered cuts in 4K/UHD sadly seems unlikely.
 

A future release with more changes to the films?
3 Trilogy boxsets of 3 films of the main Saga?
Another 9 film boxset?
An ultimate mega boxset with all films & series Lucasfilm says is ‘canon’?

May be a boxset with more unseen material from the films or behind the scenes content? (If any footage is left?) Or with new documentaries and extras?
A 8K/SuperUHD release in a few years, or other future format, with the films possibly being AI upscaled somehow?
 

Or something else? If so, what do you think it will be?

I can barely tell the difference between 1080p and 4k. Part of that’s just me, but increasing resolution seems to have diminishing returns for home media. I don’t think 8k will be a thing, at least not for a very long time. I genuinely predict we will see a re-release of the unaltered OT before we see the SE OT on 8k.

The obvious answer for a physical re-release of Episodes IV-VI is 2027 for the 50th anniversary of Star Wars.
I wouldn’t bet substantial money on the unaltered cuts being included, but it’s the most likely scenario in the near future they’d be released.

This will be a massive box set of all Star Wars movies and spin offs; possibly including some television shows. The Holiday Special is a given to be excluded.

In terms of 8K resolution, I only have lay knowledge but my understanding is 35mm film is native 4K.
8K only brings out more detail on movies shot on 70mm film. Maybe 8K will be a thing by then but again, I don’t know how much more detail there is in the negatives to be extracted that a 4K scan would miss.

It’s worth noting even if the original versions are released and the restoration is indeed gracious, clean, sharp, with natural grain and 5.1 audio mix - the efforts by Team Negative 1 are still priceless. As noted, Star Wars wasn’t a clean and grainless movie. The 4KXX projects help preserve how they originally were.

I think it’s Disney+ from here on out for the OT. I don’t think we’ll see the series released on disc either. Only new movies will get discs, and who knows how much longer that will last.

The only reason we got the Maclunky edit was because Lucas had already paid for it and it was already done, if not converted to 3D like he wanted. Disney never paid for Special Edition 4.0’s remastering/restoration. I doubt they will pay for the original versions being redone from scratch and a new scan/ restoration when they consider the 4k master archival.

It might even be long past the time when releasing the originals would have been worth it in terms of marketing with the death of physical media on the horizon. And all but Return of the Jedi’s 40th anniversary missed. I suppose if they put a couple of million into it maybe it would be worth it as a exclusive for Disney plus, but even that seems unlikely. I think its likely they never happen at all beyond the GOUT.

A 3D re-release of all nine main saga films in theaters in 2027 with a trailer attached to Avatar 4 in December of 2026 seems like a no-brainer to me.

Putting each of the Skywalker movies out one week after another in chronological I-IX order, just like the Saturday matinee serials that inspired them, seems even more obvious.

As for physical media, I’ll never say never regarding the OOT. Disney knows it’s the last thing the vast majority of fans will ever need, so they’ll keep it in their back pocket until they’ve exhausted every other possible selling point. That said, the 2020 release represents the first time they had the rights to all of the Fox era films completely under their ownership and they still didn’t include the unaltered versions, so who knows?

I’ll be interested to see if 3D is still a thing by that point in time.

Mocata said:

I’ll be interested to see if 3D is still a thing by that point in time.

Probably not any more or less than it is right now. The main point of 3D from a financial perspective was to help offset the expensive conversion from film projection to digital. The studios and theaters realize there’s still an audience for 3D, though. There’s just not a particularly big one, which is why you’ll see less 3D showtimes now and mostly normal 2D.

3D is all the rage in certain parts of the world outside the US, though. That’s probably the big reason why the studios continue to spend the extra money in post on these big budget productions to convert them. Otherwise it wouldn’t really be worth it for them.

That guy with no name said:

Mocata said:

I’ll be interested to see if 3D is still a thing by that point in time.

That’s what I thought until I saw Jurassic Park 3D: unwatchable.

At least the 3D version of Jurassic Park was from a newer scan than what the blu-ray used.

The OT, on the other hand, still hasn’t even been projected theatrically at modern 4k quality. To the best of my knowledge, that dcp of Empire that’s been shown here and there since last summer is still based off the 2011 master.

That guy with no name said:

Fang Zei said:

That guy with no name said:

Mocata said:

I’ll be interested to see if 3D is still a thing by that point in time.

That’s what I thought until I saw Jurassic Park 3D: unwatchable.

At least the 3D version of Jurassic Park was from a newer scan than what the blu-ray used.

The OT, on the other hand, still hasn’t even been projected theatrically at modern 4k quality. To the best of my knowledge, that dcp of Empire that’s been shown here and there since last summer is still based off the 2011 master.

Damn, I never thought about that.

Yup

Even with the 4k master finally available at home in late 2019 / early 2020 (after apparently being in the works for years), Disney still puts out the 2011 revision of the 2004 HD master of Empire for actual movie theaters to show.

That right there makes me think that they don’t want the newer masters being shown theatrically at all until they’ve been prepared for a rollout in grand fashion. That means remastering them for dolby cinema, Imax, and 3D.

I’d sure be interested in seeing the Death Star trench run and the speeder bike chase in a theater in 3D. Not sure they’d go to the trouble to release the 3D versions on disc though. Do they still make 3D TVs?

If we see an official release of the unaltered theatrical versions of the Original Trilogy, I’m betting it will be in the Vintage section of D+ and not on disc.

Was George planning even more changes for the 3D releases? if so what does that make the Reliance 2013 scan of Maclunky an incomplete edition? Not that i am clamoring for a 5th version of the Special Edition. Its kind of gotten ridiculous by this point.

JadedSkywalker said:

Was George planning even more changes for the 3D releases? if so what does that make the Reliance 2013 scan of Maclunky an incomplete edition? Not that i am clamoring for a 5th version of the Special Edition. Its kind of gotten ridiculous by this point.

Yes, I believe it was incomplete.

It will sadly / probably never happen . . period. . .which is why we should all take it upon ourselves to re-create the trilogy on our own using the preexisting physical media, similar to what Harmy did at the very least. You’d be amazed how through cut / paste methods of the many different available sources, you could re-create shot for shot. . .these original 3 movies. . .and make them look exactly how you want them to be.

All you need is little ambition and creative “know how” 😉

Best Buy have listings for individual 4K SteelBooks of the Original Trilogy coming on May 2.

$35.99 each! No artwork yet.

It is probably just going to be the repackaged 2019 Maclunkey editions, with bonus disc.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/star-wars-a-new-hope-steelbook-4k-ultra-hd-blu-ray-blu-ray-only--best-buy-1977/6529636.p?skuId=6529636
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/star-wars-empire-strikes-back-steelbook-4k-ultra-hd-blu-ray-blu-ray-only--best-buy-1980/6529612.p?skuId=6529612
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/star-wars-return-of-the-jedi-steelbook-4k-ultra-hd-blu-ray-blu-ray-only--best-buy-1983/6529600.p?skuId=6529600

Could be something for part of the 40th anniversary of ROTJ?

Sigh… I expect there to be the usual “millions of voices crying out… and were suddenly silenced” to happen.

I fully expect this to be re-pressings of the 2019 UHD discs. But I also fully expect that pending concrete details on the new discs, there will be banter, excitement, ridicule etc. as some will hope/wonder if these could finally be official releases of the OUT in 4k.

I hate to be cynical, but we have all seen this before. It is to the point of being cyclic.

At any rate, I hope I am wrong. I would really enjoy seeing a premium OFFICIAL release of the OUT. Until that time (if ever), I will sit back and enjoy the wonders of the 4k projects.

I used to hold out hope for the OOT, but now I’m completely certain we will never, ever see an official release. We have to move on.

That guy with no name said:

HDR (wich always f***s with film colors), and finally the price: $74:99 (USD).

This is actually not correct. Film is inherently HDR, meaning that film has a much higher dynamic range than what SDR is able to show. Most films benefit significantly from HDR color grading if done right, and aside from the technical superiority (higher dynamic range, and a wider color gamut, which allows for more realistic colors), the colors tend to be closer to what is seen in cinemas.

With regards to Star Wars, while it is definitely not perfect, the HDR color grading is the closest to how the movies looked in cinema’s we’ve had officially. The old laserdiscs looked nothing like film, and the DVD’s and Bluray were clearly intended to be revisionist.

Concur. While some studios tend to use HDR in a gimmicky fashion, there are some classic movies where HDR has made (in my opinion) a huge impact.

E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 2001: A space odyssey to name a few, look SPECTACULAR with HDR. I always chuckled at every DVD, VHS and Blu Ray of E.T., because they NEVER got Elliot’s red hoody color correct. It usually ended up orangish, over-saturated red (almost glowing), or severely muted. The 4k UHD got it right though, and I attribute that to a fresh scan and having the availability of WCG and HDR.

Close encounters of the third kind really impressed me. There were a few moments, that I actually sat there thinking I was watching film. The air traffic control scene earlier in the film is a good example. Very contrasty with dim lighting but glowing radar panel readouts and screens… Just looks amazing.

Ok, rant over.