With a slightly muted fanfare George Lucas told fans today at Celebration V that the Star Wars trilogies will be coming to Blu-ray next year.
Depending on your (certain) point of view it is either great news that three of the most celebrated films of the past thirty five years are finally being released in high definition, or it will have you protecting your wallet from taking another hit.
One of the most intriguing carrots to be dangled in front of the Star Wars faithful is the promise of the inclusion of some deleted scenes, and the assembled had their chance to see Luke’s original introduction in Return of the Jedi, in which he is seen constructing his green lightsaber, introduced by Mark Hamill himself.
Of course this being the age of cameraphones and fast internet uploads there’s a dubious recording of the scene floating around, and I couldn’t help but include it here, while it lasts.
I can’t deny there’s a certain thrill in seeing new Star Wars footage, albeit in this clandestine way, and one of the failings of the DVD releases of the original trilogy was the absence of deleted scenes which we know are floating around.
On hearing the news one of our writers, Barry, tweeted the following, possibly echoing the thoughts of many fans who have been stung before.
I will not buy StarWars Blu-Rays until they include the ‘classic’ versions.
Fair point, and I’d love to see the larger capacity Blu-ray discs host both versions but I can’t help but see an Original Original Trilogy edition Blu-ray boxset release in our future.
Read more about this on StarWars.com.
