Star Wars George Lucas

Theatrical re-releases

Star Wars was re-released theatrically in 1978, 1979, 1981, and 1982.[253] The subtitles Episode IV and A New Hope were added for the 1981 re-release.[254][255][g] The subtitles brought the film into line with its 1980 sequel, which was released as Star Wars: Episode V—The Empire Strikes Back.[256] Lucas claims the subtitles were intended from the beginning, but were dropped for Star Wars to avoid confusing audiences.[257] Kurtz said they considered calling the first film Episode III, IV, or V.[258] Hamill claims that Lucas's motivation for starting with Episode IV was to give the audience "a feeling that they'd missed something". Another reason Lucas began with Episodes IV–VI, according to Hamill, was because they were the most "commercial" sections of the larger overarching story.[259][68] Michael Kaminski, however, points out that multiple early screenplay drafts of Star Wars carried an "Episode One" subtitle, and that early drafts of Empire were called "Episode II".[68]

In 1997, Star Wars was digitally remastered with some altered scenes for a theatrical re-release, dubbed the "Special Edition". In 2010, Lucas announced that all six previously released Star Wars films would be scanned and transferred to 3D for a theatrical release, but only 3D versions of the prequel trilogy were completed before the franchise was sold to Disney in 2012.[260] In 2013, Star Wars was dubbed into Navajo, making it the first major motion picture dubbed into the Navajo language.[261][262]

Special Edition

After ILM began to create CGI for Steven Spielberg's 1993 film Jurassic Park, Lucas decided that digital technology had caught up to his "original vision" for Star Wars.[47] For the film's 20th anniversary in 1997, Star Wars was digitally remastered with some altered scenes and re-released to theaters, along with The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, under the campaign title Star Wars Trilogy: Special Edition. This version of Star Wars runs 124 minutes.

The Special Edition contains visual shots and scenes that were unachievable in the original film due to financial, technological, and time constraints.[47] The process of creating the new visual effects was explored in the documentary Special Effects: Anything Can Happen, directed by Star Wars sound designer Ben Burtt.[263] Although most changes are minor or cosmetic in nature, many fans and critics believe that Lucas degraded the film with the additions.[264][265][266] A particularly controversial change in which a bounty hunter named Greedo shoots first when confronting Han Solo has inspired T-shirts bearing the phrase "Han shot first".[267][268]

Star Wars required extensive recovery of misplaced footage and restoration of the whole film before Lucas's Special Edition modifications could be attempted. In addition to the negative film stock commonly used for feature films, Lucas had also used Color Reversal Internegative (CRI) film, a reversal stock subsequently discontinued by Kodak. Although it theoretically was of higher quality, CRI deteriorated faster than negative stocks. Because of this, the entire composited negative had to be disassembled, and the CRI portions cleaned separately from the negative portions. Once the cleaning was complete, the film was scanned into the computer for restoration. In many cases, entire scenes had to be reconstructed from their individual elements. Digital compositing technology allowed the restoration team to correct for problems such as misalignment of mattes and "blue-spill".[269]

In 1989, the 1977 theatrical version of Star Wars was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry of the United States Library of Congress.[247] 35 mm reels of the 1997 Special Edition were initially presented for preservation because of the difficulty of transferring from the original prints, but it was later revealed that the Library possessed a copyright deposit print of the original theatrical release.[248] By 2015, this copy had been transferred to a 2K scan, now available to be viewed by appointment.[249] Shortly after the release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, director Gareth Edwards claimed he viewed a 4K restoration of the original theatrical version of Star Wars, created by Disney. The company has never confirmed its existence, however.[270][271]

Home media

In the United States, France, West Germany, Italy and Japan, parts of or the whole film were released on Super 8.[272] Clips were also released for the Movie Viewer toy projector by Kenner Products in cassettes featuring short scenes.[273][274]

Star Wars was released on Betamax,[275] CED,[276] LaserDisc,[277] Video 2000, and VHS[278][279] during the 1980s and 1990s by CBS/Fox Video. The final issue of the original theatrical release (pre-Special Edition) on VHS occurred in 1995, as part of a "Last Chance to Own the Original" campaign, and was available as part of a trilogy set or as a standalone purchase.[280] The film was released for the first time on DVD on September 21, 2004, in a box set with The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and a bonus disc of supplementary material. The films were digitally restored and remastered, and more changes were made by Lucas (in addition to those made for the 1997 Special Edition). The DVD features a commentary track from Lucas, Fisher, Burtt and visual effects artist Dennis Muren. The bonus disc contains the documentary Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy, three featurettes, teaser and theatrical trailers, TV spots, image galleries, an exclusive preview of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, a playable Xbox demo of the LucasArts game Star Wars: Battlefront, and a making-of documentary about the Episode III video game.[281] The set was reissued in December 2005 as a three-disc limited edition without the bonus disc.[282]

The trilogy was re-released on separate two-disc limited edition DVD sets from September 12 to December 31, 2006, and again in a limited edition box set on November 4, 2008;[283] the original theatrical versions of the films were added as bonus material. The release was met with criticism because the unaltered versions were from the 1993 non-anamorphic LaserDisc masters, and were not re-transferred using modern video standards. This led to problems with colors and digital image jarring.[284]

All six existing Star Wars films were released by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on Blu-ray on September 16, 2011, in three different editions. A New Hope was available in both a box set of the original trilogy[285][286] and with the other five films in the set Star Wars: The Complete Saga, which includes nine discs and over 40 hours of special features.[287] The original theatrical versions of the films were not included in the box set. New changes were made to the films, provoking mixed responses.[288]

On April 7, 2015, Walt Disney Studios, Twentieth Century Fox, and Lucasfilm jointly announced the digital releases of the six existing Star Wars films. Fox released A New Hope for digital download on April 10, 2015, while Disney released the other five films.[289][290] Disney reissued A New Hope on Blu-ray, DVD, and for digital download on September 22, 2019.[291] Additionally, all six films were available for 4K HDR and Dolby Atmos streaming on Disney+ upon the service's launch on November 12, 2019.[292] This version of A New Hope was also released by Disney in a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray box set on March 31, 2020.[293]

Merchandising

Little Star Wars merchandise was available for several months after the film's debut, as only Kenner Products had accepted marketing director Charles Lippincott's licensing offers. Kenner responded to the sudden demand for toys by selling boxed vouchers in its "empty box" Christmas campaign. Television commercials told children and parents that vouchers contained in a "Star Wars Early Bird Certificate Package" could be redeemed for four action figures between February and June 1978.[47] Jay West of the Los Angeles Times said that the boxes in the campaign "became the most coveted empty box[es] in the history of retail."[294] In 2012, the Star Wars action figures were inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.[295]

The novelization of the film was published as Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker in December 1976, six months before the film was released. The credited author was George Lucas, but the book was revealed to have been ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster. Marketing director Charles Lippincott secured the deal with Del Rey Books to publish the novelization in November 1976. By February 1977, a half million copies had been sold.[47] Foster also wrote the sequel novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye (1978) to be adapted as a low-budget film if Star Wars was not a financial success.[296]

Marvel Comics also adapted the film as the first six issues of its licensed Star Wars comic book, with the first issue sold in April 1977. The comic was written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Howard Chaykin. Like the novelization, it contained certain elements, such as the scene with Luke and Biggs, that appeared in the screenplay but not in the finished film.[142] The series was so successful that, according to comic book writer Jim Shooter, it "single-handedly saved Marvel".[297] From January to April 1997, Dark Horse Comics, which had held the comic rights to Star Wars since 1991, published a comic book adaptation of the "Special Edition" of the film, written by Bruce Jones with art by Eduardo Barreto and Al Williamson; 36 years later, the same company published The Star Wars, an adaptation of the plot from Lucas's original rough draft screenplay, from September 2013 to May 2014.[298]

Lucasfilm adapted the story for a children's book-and-record set. Released in 1979, the 24-page Star Wars read-along book was accompanied by a 33+1⁄3 rpm 7-inch phonograph record. Each page of the book contained a cropped frame from the movie with an abridged and condensed version of the story. The record was produced by Buena Vista Records, and its content was copyrighted by Black Falcon, Ltd., a subsidiary of Lucasfilm "formed to handle the merchandising for Star Wars."[299] The Story of Star Wars was a 1977 record album presenting an abridged version of the events depicted in Star Wars, using dialogue and sound effects from the original film. The recording was produced by George Lucas and Alan Livingston, and was narrated by Roscoe Lee Browne. The script was adapted by E. Jack Kaplan and Cheryl Gard.

An audio CD boxed set of the Star Wars radio series was released in 1993, containing the original 1981 radio drama along with the radio adaptations of the sequels, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.[300]