No Plans To Restore The Original Trilogy

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...we, the fans of the original cut of the Star Wars trilogy, were told that the 1977 theatrical release of A New Hope, the 1980 theatrical release of The Empire Strikes Back, and the 1983 theatrical release of Return of the Jedi, would be released on Blu-Ray and DVD, minus all of the junk that George Lucas threw in for their re-release into movie theaters.  It never happened.  After Disney purchased Lucasfilm, these rumors resurfaced and hope began to spread across the web again.  Unfortunately, hope wasn't enough, and our desires have not been heard.


Recently, Kathleen Kennedy (head of Lucasfilm) was asked if the original versions of these films would ever be released by Disney, to which she replied, "I wouldn’t touch those, are you kidding me? [laughs] Those will always remain his.”  So much for this happening any time soon.


It should be noted that this is her personal decision, not something that was included in on the purchase between Lucas and Disney.  If, at some point in the future, Disney decided that they wanted to do this, they could.  It would take a lot of work, though, to restore these films to their original cut.  The reason why is because when George Lucas went in a screwed everything...I mean, when he went in to "fix" his movies so they were more in line with what he wanted them to look like, he actually altered the film prints themselves.  It's said that the original sequences are somewhere in the Lucasfilm vaults, and it would take a large team to "painstakingly reassemble the films into their original forms."  It would seem like a smart thing to do.  If Disney is all about making money off of their purchase from Lucas, then doing this would be a no-brainer.  Don't they realize how many fans out there want this to happen?  But then, when has a movie ever listened to what the fans want...