Move over, Star Wars: Starfighter — a new most hotly anticipated Star Wars cinema release of 2027 has just entered the conversation. Okay, okay, so Ryan Gosling and Shawn Levy's decidedly aqueous looking new Star War is actually probably still our most hyped trip to that galaxy far, far away coming in the next couple of years, but that's besides the point. Today, it has been announced that as part of the original Star Wars' (or A New Hope, for younger readers) upcoming 50th anniversary celebrations in 2027, a new restoration of the film's OG theatrical release — yes, the one without CG Jabba the Hutt — is coming to cinemas. Yippee!
Set to hit cinemas seemingly worldwide on 19 February, 2027, Star Wars' re-release marks just the first event in what is shaping up to be a year-long celebration of George Lucas' original epic space opera. Today's announcement follows off the back of learning at this year's Star Wars Celebration in Japan that Celebration is lightspeed skipping its way to the Los Angeles Convention Centre for the franchise's big 5-0 in 2027, with said centre being just a stone's throw from Lucas' imminently opening new Museum Of Narrative Art. And with Starfighter due out in May of that year also, the Force is strong — and getting stronger by the day — with Lucasfilm's half-century plans for Star Wars.
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For those who may have grown up on the 1997-released, George Lucas-tinkered-with Special Editions of the Original Trilogy and have no idea what all the fuss is about, it's worth explaining that outside of a special screening held at the BFI earlier this year, the original, unaltered Star Wars has scarcely if ever been played in cinemas since the movie's first theatrical run. All of which is to say that the prospect of Lucas' game changing blockbuster back in cinemas, in its original form, for the film's 50th anniversary is a massive deal, and could pave the way for Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi's OG cuts to be brought back to our screens in years to come. On a day when the future of the bricks and mortar cinema experience has otherwise felt troublingly precarious, suffice it to say that we've got a very good feeling about this, Empirians.