It's The End Of An Era For Star Wars After 30 Years

Image via MovieStillsDB Published Jul 17, 2026, 4:30 PM EDT El is a Junior TV Features Editor for ScreenRant, with previous experience as The Mary Sue's UK and Weekend Editor. She holds a Bachelor's in International Media and Entertainment Management, as well as an MA and Ph.D. in Creative Writing. There is little she loves more than discussing her favorite TV shows with fellow fans. One day, she hopes to publish an original fantasy novel. Sign in to your ScreenRant account Next year will officially mark the end of an era for Star Wars, as a new wide release will change the franchise's history. In 2027, Star Wars will celebrate its landmark 50th anniversary. The festivities will include the long-awaited premiere of Ahsoka season 2, the mysterious debut of Shawn Levy and Ryan Gosling's standalone theatrical adventure, Star Wars: Starfighter, and the return of Star Wars Celebration, as it heads back to Los Angeles for the first time in 21 years. While all of those projects are exciting, none will have quite as much of an impact on the franchise's history and legacy as the original 1977 theatrical cut of the first Star Wars movie, scheduled for a wide, limited-time-only release in February. A newly restored version will be shown in cinemas following the first, one-off public screening of an original print at the British Film Institute's Film on Film Festival in June 2025. That screening was such a rare opportunity that even former Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy joined the audience. Star Wars mastermind George Lucas famously edited the franchise's debut movie for years — decades, even. The most immediately recognizable change occurred in 1981, when the opening crawl was altered to include the movie's current title, A New Hope. Over time, Lucas changed visual effects, sound effects, dialogue, backgrounds, and even fundamentally revised some scenes' narrative sequences, like Han Solo's and Greedo's "negotiation" in the Mos Eisley cantina. (Those lucky enough to have seen Star Wars on the big screen when it first premiered will tell you that Han shot Greedo first). The final result of Lucas' edits was the 1997 Star Wars special edition, the most prevalent version of the movie for the past 29 years. It's the sole edition that can be streamed on Disney+ and the only one currently being sold on DVD and Blu-ray. The 1977 version only officially exists for fans on surviving VHS tapes, laser discs, and as a bonus feature on a 2006 Star Wars box set. An entire generation grew up with Lucas' edited version and that version alone; there's a lot at stake here, both for the fans and for the franchise. George Lucas Felt The Original Star Wars Was "Half A Completed Film" When Star Wars first premiered in 1977, it became one of the most successful movies of all time, changing the industry's perception of sci-fi as a genre and filmmaking as an art form. On a modest budget of $11 million, Lucas' original Star Wars earned a whopping $300 million during its first run in cinemas, an incredible feat in those days (adjusted for inflation, that gives the movie a stunning $1.6 billion box office return). Still, despite Star Wars' cultural influence and unprecedented financial success in the late '70s, Lucas was never happy with the movie's final cut. While the original Star Wars has its own unique charm and feel, the director's vision was probably much closer to what he eventually produced with the Star Wars prequel trilogy, an otherworldly space opera with realistic CGI and made on a much larger scale. In 2004 — near the time he released the final altered version of Return of the Jedi, which included Hayden Christensen's Anakin Skywalker rather than Sebastian Shaw's — Lucas told the Associated Press that the "special edition ones are the films [he] wanted to make... I'm sorry you saw half a completed film and fell in love with it." He went on to explain that the original cut only "came out to be 25 or 30 percent of what [he] wanted it to be." (via Today). Star Wars' Upcoming Return To Theaters Is A Massive Shift For The Franchise It seems unlikely that Lucasfilm and Disney would showcase this version of the movie on such a massive scale if Lucas had refused, especially considering the studios' dedication to upholding his special editions as the primary versions of the original trilogy since Disney's takeover in 2012. Still, it's a major shift for the franchise; it feels like more than an anniversary celebration. The Mandalorian and Grogu was sadly not the box office success Disney and Lucasfilm were hoping for, earning roughly $50 million less than 2018's "flop," Solo: A Star Wars Story. As the franchise continues to fight for its theatrical future, showcasing a movie that Lucas deemed unworthy implies that the studios are looking to the franchise's past for answers on how to move forward. That's a gamble, however, especially if they decide to release a streaming or physical media edition as well (though this remains to be seen). A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away · Eight Questions How Well Do You Know Star Wars? “The Force will be with you. Always.” 🗡️Jedi OrderLight-side guardians ⚡The SithRule of two ⚙️The RebellionA new hope 🪓Bounty HuntersThis is the way 👑The EmpireOrder 66 PUNCH IT! → 01 The original Star Wars film — later retitled Episode IV: A New Hope — opened in just 32 American theatres and proceeded to become the highest-grossing film of its era, redefining what summer blockbusters could be. In which year did it premiere? A1975 B1977 C1979 D1980 ✓ Correct! 1977 — specifically May 25. 20th Century Fox had so little faith in the project they only opened it in 32 theatres at first; queues quickly stretched around the block, and the film expanded to over 1,000 screens within months. It earned $307 million in its initial domestic run, won six Academy Awards (with another four nominations) and inverted Hollywood’s economics for the next 50 years. ✗ Wrong. The answer is 1977. 1975 is when the script was being shopped around. 1979 is when Star Trek: The Motion Picture released as a Star Wars-shaped countermove. 1980 is The Empire Strikes Back. The original Star Wars is May 25, 1977. NEXT → 02 A New Hope’s writer-director was a then-32-year-old American Graffiti veteran who’d struggled to get the project greenlit and famously took back-end profit and merchandising rights in lieu of a higher salary — the deal that would build a billion-dollar company. He returned to direct the prequels but stepped away from the original-trilogy sequels. Name him. ASteven Spielberg BGeorge Lucas CFrancis Ford Coppola DIrvin Kershner ✓ Correct! George Lucas. The merchandising rights he kept (because Fox didn’t value them) became the financial bedrock of Lucasfilm and the basis of the modern toys-and-licensing megabusiness. After A New Hope, Lucas produced but didn’t direct Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner) or Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand), then directed all three prequels (1999–2005). He sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 and stepped away from creative control of the sequels. ✗ Wrong. The answer is George Lucas. Steven Spielberg was Lucas’s close friend (and the godfather of his post-A-New-Hope career) but never directed a Star Wars film. Coppola was Lucas’s mentor at USC and at American Zoetrope. Irvin Kershner directed Empire Strikes Back. The original is Lucas’s. NEXT → 03 In 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader delivers cinema’s most-misquoted line at the climax of his Cloud City duel with Luke Skywalker. Vader severs Luke’s hand and reveals their relationship. The exact line is — for the record — “No, I am your father.” What relationship does it confirm? AVader is Luke’s uncle BVader is Luke’s father (Anakin Skywalker) CVader is Obi-Wan’s brother DVader is Han’s father ✓ Correct! Vader is Anakin Skywalker, Luke’s father. The reveal was so jealously guarded that Mark Hamill was only told the real line on set the day they shot it (the script said “Obi-Wan killed your father”), and even James Earl Jones recorded the dub without knowing the full plot context. The line — commonly misquoted as “Luke, I am your father” — rewrote what trilogies could pull off and is broadly considered cinema’s most famous twist. ✗ Wrong. The answer is that Vader is Luke’s father, Anakin Skywalker. The whole foundation of the Skywalker saga collapses to this single twist: Anakin (the Jedi prodigy of the prequels) becomes Vader after his fall. Luke and Leia are revealed in Return of the Jedi to be his twin children, separated at birth. NEXT → 04 Yoda — the green, ear-twitching Jedi Master — was puppeted and voiced from his Empire Strikes Back debut through the prequels and the sequels by a single Muppet-show-veteran performer who also voices Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear. Name him. AJim Henson BFrank Oz CSteve Whitmire DBrian Henson ✓ Correct! Frank Oz — longtime Jim Henson collaborator and voice/puppet work on Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Sam Eagle and Grover. Oz puppeted Yoda directly through The Phantom Menace before CGI took over for Attack of the Clones onward, but he’s continued to voice the character through the sequels and animated series. Yoda’s syntax was developed jointly by Lucas and Oz to feel old, foreign and hard-won. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Frank Oz. Jim Henson was Oz’s mentor and collaborator (he created the Muppets) but didn’t voice Yoda. Steve Whitmire took over Kermit after Henson’s 1990 death. Brian Henson is Jim’s son and runs the Henson company today. Yoda is Frank Oz’s. NEXT → 05 In a deal that reshaped Hollywood, Disney acquired Lucasfilm Ltd. for $4.05 billion in cash and stock — bringing Star Wars, Indiana Jones, ILM and Skywalker Sound under the Disney umbrella. The deal also kicked off the sequel trilogy production. In what year did Disney close the acquisition? A2009 B2010 C2012 D2014 ✓ Correct! 2012 — specifically October 30. The deal was announced with simultaneous reveal that a Star Wars Episode VII was being developed for a 2015 release. Lucas had been quietly preparing his exit from Lucasfilm for years; Kathleen Kennedy had been brought in as co-chair months earlier specifically to take over. The Force Awakens came out three years later, in December 2015, kicking off the modern era. ✗ Wrong. The answer is 2012. 2009 is when Disney acquired Marvel ($4 billion). 2010 is the year before Lucas began signalling exit plans. 2014 is when production proper began on The Force Awakens. Lucasfilm joined Disney on October 30, 2012. NEXT → 06 The Mandalorian launched as Disney+’s flagship original on November 12, 2019 — the day the streaming service itself launched. Created by Jon Favreau and run by Dave Filoni, the show centres on a helmeted bounty hunter who reluctantly becomes a foster father to “The Child” (Grogu). What is the Mandalorian’s real name? ABoba Fett BCobb Vanth CDin Djarin DBo-Katan Kryze ✓ Correct! Din Djarin — played by Pedro Pascal under the helmet (with body double Brendan Wayne handling much of the physical work). The Mandalorian is widely credited with reviving Star Wars on TV, popularising the StageCraft LED-volume virtual production technology now used across Hollywood, and turning baby Yoda — Grogu — into the meme-economy phenomenon of late 2019. Three seasons have aired with a feature film, The Mandalorian & Grogu, set for May 2026. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Din Djarin. Boba Fett is the famous bounty hunter from the original trilogy, with his own Disney+ spinoff (The Book of Boba Fett, 2021). Cobb Vanth is the Tatooine marshal played by Timothy Olyphant. Bo-Katan Kryze is the Mandalorian princess played by Katee Sackhoff. The Mandalorian himself is Din Djarin. NEXT → 07 Order 66 — the secret directive that turns the Republic’s clone troopers against their Jedi commanders and effectively ends the Jedi Order — is dramatised in the climactic third act of which prequel film? AEpisode I: The Phantom Menace BEpisode II: Attack of the Clones CEpisode III: Revenge of the Sith DRogue One ✓ Correct! Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). Palpatine’s “Execute Order 66” comm to the clone armies leads to the methodical, planet-by-planet liquidation of the Jedi Order — one of the saga’s most operatic sequences, scored to John Williams’ “Anakin’s Betrayal” cue. The same film features Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side, the Mustafar duel with Obi-Wan, and his rebirth as Darth Vader in the suit. Widely re-evaluated as the best of the prequels. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Revenge of the Sith. Phantom Menace ends with Qui-Gon’s death and the unveiling of Darth Maul. Attack of the Clones ends with the Clone Wars beginning. Rogue One is set just before A New Hope, after Order 66 has long since happened. The Order 66 sequence is the climax of Episode III. NEXT → 08 Andor (2022–25) is widely regarded as the most adult, politically literate Star Wars project ever made — a slow-burn prequel to Rogue One charting Cassian Andor’s radicalisation against the Empire. The series was created and showrun by a writer/director best known for the original Bourne trilogy and Michael Clayton. Name him. ATony Gilroy BRian Johnson CJon Favreau DDave Filoni ✓ Correct! Tony Gilroy. He’d previously been brought in for extensive Rogue One reshoots in 2016, and Lucasfilm gave him near-total creative independence on Andor. Season 1 (12 episodes, 2022) is widely regarded as Star Wars’ finest dramatic writing ever; Season 2 (also 12 episodes, in four three-episode jumps across 2025) closes the gap to Rogue One’s opening scene. Gilroy’s prior credits: Bourne Identity / Supremacy / Ultimatum / Legacy, plus directing Michael Clayton (2007). ✗ Wrong. The answer is Tony Gilroy. Rian Johnson directed The Last Jedi (2017). Jon Favreau created The Mandalorian and is Lucasfilm’s Disney+-era animation/live-action lieutenant. Dave Filoni runs the Filoniverse (Clone Wars, Rebels, Ahsoka, the upcoming Heir to the Empire film). Andor is Tony Gilroy’s. REVEAL MY RATING → The Force Has Spoken · Final Tally Your Galactic Standing 🗡️ / 8 Jedi Master — or moisture farmer on Tatooine? ⤴ ANOTHER GO The Star Wars sequel trilogy was inextricably intertwined with the original trilogy and suffered as a result. On the other hand, a show like Andor, which did something entirely new in Star Wars, thrived beyond the franchise's usual fandom bubble. Disney and Lucasfilm will need to strike a careful balance in the future. Sharing Lucas' original cut with the world is an undeniable treat for fans who've waited for this moment for 30 years. And yet, there's always the lingering danger that Star Wars will get stuck in the past, relying on nostalgia rather than innovation to keep the galaxy far, far away alive. The original Star Wars (1977) will return to theaters for a limited time on February 19, 2027. Release Date May 25, 1977 Runtime 121 minutes Director George Lucas