Star Wars' Most Exciting 2027 Movie Release Isn't Starfighter

1 day ago 10

Published Sep 9, 2026, 8:30 AM EDT

Simon Gallagher has worked in movie and TV journalism for more than 17 years. He has written more than 6000 articles and reviews, and edited thousands more. He is an expert in the entertainment industry, particularly in the golden age of screen superheroes. Simon is also a Rotten Tomatoes approved critic.

Before Star Wars earned its Episode branding or its subtitle of A New Hope, it was a different movie than the one currently available to buy in 4k, on digital, or to watch on Disney+. It’s fair to say that George Lucas’ magnus opus, released for the first time in May 1977, has undergone a fair amount of tinkering over the years, and the theatrical cut was long-considered a rarity inaccessible to the majority of fans.

Not anymore, though: in 2027, as part of a year-long 50th anniversary celebration, the theatrical cut of Stars Wars (1977) will return to theaters, allowing modern fans the chance to experience it as fans would have five decades ago. Then, three months later, on the 50th Memorial Day weekend since the original movie was released, the next era of Star Wars will also begin with Ryan Gosling’s Starfighter flying into theaters.

Quite what else Lucasfilm and Disney have mapped out for the rest of the year is unclear, but you would think there will be announcements and special reveals. Fingers crossed we get a resurrection of The Hunt for Kylo Ren at the very least. Either way, it’s too much of a perfect opportunity not to make a lot of noise about the franchise. Honestly, Starfighter has a lot riding on it: online cynicism has threatened to boil over too much in recent years as some have fought against the perceived shift in Star Wars’ priorities, but a good old-fashioned Top Gun in space caper should be safe enough.

Even with a lot of excitement about the possibilities offered by the first post-Skywalker Saga movie release, the undisputed cinematic event of 2027 for Star Wars fans is the chance to look backward. Those original theatrical cuts returning to theaters is basically a Holy Grail opportunity. And there’s absolutely no gamble about any of it.

How to Watch Star Wars' Original Theatrical Cut in 2027 (& How It's Different)

Jabba the Hutt in Star Wars theatrical Cut

The reason this Star Wars re-release feels so momentous, even on a limited run, directly correlates with how forbidden the original theatrical cut was. I cannot underline just how much of a different experience it is from the one you can watch on Disney+, but there are some notorious differences to underline what changed.

The most obvious changes came with the 1997 Special Edition and subsequent home video updates: in the theatrical cut, Han Solo shoots Greedo dead in the Mos Eisley cantina booth without a second thought - a cool moment that helped establish exactly who he was as a character (which helped his redemptive arc). In George Lucas’ “improved” vision, Greedo shot first, prmpting an outpouring of outrage from fans.

The original release also lacks the controversial scene featuring an early CGI Jabba the Hutt blocking Han’s path outside the Millennium Falcon - the human-starring version of which was cut from the theatrical version for fairly obvious reasons. And fundamentally, the theatrical cut means fans can experience Mos Eisley as a tense, claustrophobic hive of activity created practically, with charming puppets, rather than the monstrous digital additions of later editions, and nonsense background gags.

The Special Editions may have been Lucas’ real vision, but the changes meant accolades like the visual effects Oscar picked up by Industrial Light & Magic couldn’t be achieved purely. Here, we get to see the creative achievement that actually led to that win in its original form, and with all of the imperfections (mostly - it’s been restored, but the gloss will surely be minor). Star Wars will return in this form to theaters on February 19 worldwide, for a limited time, and will also be presented in IMAX for the first time ever across a select number of IMAX 70mm film locations.

Why It's Taken So Long For Star Wars' Original Cut to Be Shown

George Lucas at the Cannes red carpet in 2024

For a long time, the 2027 theatrical cut re-release looked impossible. George Lucas was always very clear about his stance on his creation and made no secret of his dissatisfaction with the version that was rushed out to theaters in 1977. It was a compromise, flawed, and constricted by the limits of technology. His Special Editions weren’t a ploy to make more money, no how successfully it did so; they were a restoration of his original vision, thanks to technology catching up with his intent.

Once digital tools caught up with his imagination in the mid-1990s, Lucas was able to deliver his original vision, and the theatrical cuts were essentially redundant. Back in late 1970s, in an interview with journalist Alan Arnold for the book Once Upon a Galaxy: A Journal of the Making of Empire Strikes Back, the director shared his stance on preserving art as it was created: "To me, film is historical document and therefore it has practical value. People 500 years from now will look at our films and be able to figure out what we were like...They are technological extensions of, a derivation from, the comic strip.” He also said:

“In the future it will become even easier for old negatives to become lost and be "replaced" by new altered negatives. This would be a great loss to our society. Our cultural history must not be allowed to be rewritten."

Time clearly softened those feelings. In 1997, he said of the Special Editions, “What ends up being important in my mind is what the DVD version is going to look like, because that's what everybody is going to remember. The other versions will disappear. Even the 35 million tapes of Star Wars out there won't last more than 30 or 40 years. A hundred years from now, the only version of the movie that anyone will remember will be the DVD version.”

And then, in 2004, he doubled down and made his feeling on the theatrical cut resoundingly clear: "The Special Edition, that's the one I wanted out there. The other movie, it's on VHS, if anybody wants it... To me, it doesn't really exist anymore." Since then, he’s been very clear that his ownership of Star Wars meant he had full control, and the theatrical cuts were simply old drafts that had been retired. Such was his conviction that the original camera negatives were physically altered making any sort of restoration very difficult. Mercifully, Disney’s stance is different.

Starfighter is a Bigger Gamble Than any Skywalker Saga Movie

None of the excitement about the return of the original cut of Star Wars (1977) means we’re writing off Starfighter at all, but it does add to the conversation on the risk a new original Star Wars movie carries. Even with the blockbuster pedigree of Shawn Levy and Ryan Gosling’s star power involved. Simply put, standalone Star Wars movies and anything “new” face an uphill battle that mainline releases simply do not.

Rogue One is an exception, of course: it’s a masterpiece, while still being the result of a troubled production period, but it was anchored to a very specific part of A New Hope. Solo, on the other hand was an expansion that counts more as new, and reception was way colder (far more unfairly, as well). Even the attempt to make something new within the Sequel Trilogy, in the case of The Last Jedi led to an exhausting deluge of discourse. The right balance is capturing nostalgia while also not simply regurgitating. We know so little about Starfighter so far that it’s unclear if it will hit the brief.

Levy’s movie arguably faces an even steeper slope than Solo. It lacks any legacy characters from the core saga (unless we’re being misled massively), and momentum has to be built on its own. Even if persistent rumors about Rey’s involvement prove to be true, that’s a very different selling point to if Luke Skywalker was set to pop up. That makes it both a gamble and a fascinating creative roll of the dice, but there’s still no contest compared to the theatrical cut finally hitting big screens.

Star Wars (1977) will return to theaters and be shown in IMAX 70mm for the first time from February 19, 2027.

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