Rare, Untouched 1978 'Star Wars' Will Be Screened Soon — But There's a Catch
Infamously, since 1997, finding a way to watch an original theatrical version of Star Wars has proven more difficult than stealing the Death Star Plans. But now, the British Film Institute plans to screen a 1978 film print of the original Star Wars at a film festival this June.
The festival is called "Film on Film," and according to The Telegraph and The Hollywood Reporter, it will reportedly include this non-special edition version of the original Star Wars in its movie lineup. If this print of Star Wars is truly from 1978, then it will lack the subtitle "Episode IV: A New Hope" in the iconic opening text crawl. The idea of subtitling the original Star Wars movie with episode numbers didn't happen until 1980 with the release of The Empire Strikes Back. And then, it wasn't until 1981 that "A New Hope" was added to a theatrical rerelease of the original Star Wars.
So, a 1978 print of Star Wars will, yes, almost certainly be a real-deal original version of the 1977 movie. This means that Han will shoot first, there will be zero CGI aliens, no awkward Jabba the Hutt scene, and all the spaceships will be physical models, made of plastic and balsa wood. In 1997, and then again in 2004, director George Lucas "updated" the first three Star Wars movies with CGI effects, new scenes, and more.
Related: Theatrical 1977 'Star Wars' Vanishes as Roku Deletes Cinema Box (Again)
Back in February, a bootleg non-special edition of the 1977 Star Wars hit a fly-by-night streaming service called Cinema Box. This means that one pseudo-theatrical version of Star Wars was briefly streaming in the US this year, albeit for a very short time.
In terms of official Star Wars releases, the 2005 film Revenge of the Sith will hit theaters for its 25th anniversary on April 25, 2025, in a limited run in the United States.
Meanwhile, the next big Star Wars TV series, Andor, which serves as a prequel to the 1977 film, will start streaming its second and final season on Disney+ on April 22.
Related: 'Andor' Season 2: Release Date, Cast and Surprising 'Star Wars' Time-Jumps