The seemingly impossible has happened, and perhaps Mustafar has frozen over. George Lucas’ original theatrical version of Star Wars: A New Hope has had a theatrical screening. The British Film Institute’s Film on Film Festival in June opened with a screening of Lucas’ 1977 classic. This is one of the few original Technicolor prints still in existence. Kathleen Kennedy herself confirmed it may be almost the only one of its kind. December 1978 was the last time this print of the original Star Wars movie was ever shown. This will be the first time this version of Star Wars has had a theatrical showing in nearly 47 years.
Now, you might be thinking our math is wrong here. It can’t possibly be 47 years, right? True, the last official wide release of the non-Special Edition versions of the original trilogy happened in 1995. That entire ad campaign was “See the original versions, one last time.” But those VHS releases were not really the original versions of Star Wars either. George Lucas began tweaking the sound mix of the film almost right away. When he re-released Star Wars after The Empire Strikes Back, Lucas added in the “Episode IV: A New Hope” title to the opening crawl. That didn’t exist until 1981. The version shown at the upcoming film festival is simply “Star Wars.”
There’s every chance this happy news for OG Star Wars fans doesn’t last long, however. George Lucas famously hated the unaltered original versions if the Star Wars movie, particularly of the first film. He’s always maintained that he never really finished them. And undeniably, some parts are better in the Special Editions, namely, the Death Star trench battle. (Greedo shooting first? Still not better.)
Lucas even said in the past about the original Star Wars movie, “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. It’s like this is the movie I wanted it to be, and I’m sorry you saw a half-completed film and fell in love with it. But I want it to be the way I want it to be. I’m the one who has to take responsibility for it. I’m the one who has to have everybody throw rocks at me all the time, so at least if they’re going to throw rocks at me, they’re going to throw rocks at me for something I love rather than something I think is not very good, or at least something I think is not finished.”
We can kind of see Lucas’ point. But these unaltered, original Star Wars films are a part of history. Though George Lucas technically doesn’t own Lucasfilm anymore, but if he’s mad enough about it, all he has to do is pick up his phone and call Kathleen Kennedy, and the original version of Star Wars goes back into the vault.
But it seems Mr. Lucas isn’t THAT intractable in his older age. Kathleen Kennedy was on hand at the BFI screening of the original Star Wars movie, and noted to fans, “I’m here to legitimize this and make sure that you don’t think that this is an illegal screening.” She went on to share, “It’s incredible folklore. I have to say even when I came into the company…there was endless conversation about what was in fact the first print. What you’re going to see is, in fact, the first print. And I’m not even sure there’s another one quite like it. It’s that rare. There’s so much tinkering that’s gone on over the years. And things that George decided, ‘I’m going to change this, I’m going to try that,’ and everyone kind of lost track of the original.”
We’re glad that Lucas let at least some of us see the original version of Star Wars that the world fell in love with nearly five decades ago, in theaters as it was meant to be seen. Hopefully, more screenings of this kind can happen soon.
Originally published on April 16, 2025.
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Source: Kiat Media
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