The original Star Wars will be returning to cinemas in 2027 for its 50th anniversary.
- READ MORE: ‘Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker’ review: a sufficiently satisfying finale that gives fans exactly what they want
The movie – the first Star Wars film to be released and the fourth chronologically – is set to be shown in cinemas on February 19, 2027, as part of the franchise’s 50th anniversary celebrations.
“Switch on your targeting computer and keep your eyes on StarWars.com for more details, including when and where to buy tickets to this once-in-a-generation event,” a statement on the official website reads.
Parent company Disney first announced that it would bring the movie, later retitled Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, back earlier this year, but it’s now set to arrive in cinemas earlier than first thought. And, it’s only now been announced that the version will be a “newly restored” version of the original film, expected to be the same version that was shown at the BFI in London earlier this year as part of the Film on Film Festival.
The original differs in a few ways from the 1997 Special Edition, which almost entirely replaced the original after creator George Lucas decided that digital technology had caught up with his “original vision” for the movie.
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The process of creating the new effects was covered in the documentary Special Effects: Anything Can Happen, released the year before, and the effects themselves proved controversial with some fans of the franchise.
One change, in which the bounty hunter Greedo shoots first in a confrontation with Han Solo – in comparison to the original in which Han is the first of the two to fire – proved particularly divisive and even inspired T-shirts with the phrase “Han shot first”.
Back in 2004, Lucas said to Associated Press (via Today): “The Special Edition, that’s the one I wanted out there. The other movie, it’s on VHS, if anybody wants it. I’m not going to spend the — we’re talking millions of dollars here — the money and the time to refurbish that, because to me, it doesn’t really exist anymore.”
However, in October, he told WSJ Magazine that he’s “moved past” Star Wars 13 years after selling it to Disney.
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Meanwhile, just over three months after Star Wars is set to return to cinemas, Star Wars: Starfighter is expected to be released. Set five years after the events of Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker, the Shawn Levy-directed film will star the likes of Ryan Gosling, Flynn Gray, Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre and Simon Bird.
And in October, fans began a campaign to save a scrapped Star Wars sequel that would bring back the character of Ben Solo. A week before, Adam Driver made headlines after revealing in an interview that he and director Steven Soderbergh had written and pitched a new film in the Star Wars Universe, titled The Hunt For Ben Solo. The story would have brought his character Solo back from the dead.
However, executives at Disney turned it down. “They didn’t see how Ben Solo was alive. And that was that,” Driver explained.
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