50th Anniversary of 'Star Wars' Celebrated with iMax 70mm Re-Release, Special Events, New Movie

"Lucasfilm and Disney have restored the original Star Wars (1977) and will release the film in multiple formats, including Imax 70mm [starting February 19], as part of the franchise's 50th anniversary celebrations," reports Deadline.

The original film will also be displayed in its original 16:9 format on the center of Cosm's 12K+ LED Dome, in a special presentation developed with Disney, Lucasfilm, ILM, and MakeMake. They're calling it a "Shared Reality production" where "the surrounding visual environments dynamically evolve to immerse the audience in iconic Star Wars locations and moments."

Deadline reports more 50th anniversary celebrations In addition to the Imax 70mm screenings, the film will also be presented in Digital Imax, Digital Cinema, 70mm, 35mm, and 4DX. On May 4th, 2027, Lucasfilm will release a new behind-the-scenes documentary, The Hero Awakens, from filmmaker R.J. Cutler on Disney+. Star Wars events already on the calendar for 2027 include Shawn Levy's [movie] Star Wars: Starfighter, which will be released May 28.
There's also a new poster paying homage to the original 1977 film, reports the Disney news site Mickey Visit, plus a newly orchestrated score by John Williams that they assume "will be used on all the projects that debut this year." On April 2-3, [Disney] will debut the new "Star Wars in Concert: The Skywalker Saga" at the Hollywood Bowl. The show will be hosted by Anthony Daniels, known for his role as C-3PO. Special performances of John Williams' iconic film scores will feature scenes and music from all nine Skywalker Saga films. The concert is a sweeping celebration of the stories, themes, and music that have inspired audiences around the world for five decades...

They also teased that new and legacy licensees — including Hasbro, the LEGO Group, adidas, Mars, Aston Martin, Steinway, Hajime Sorayama presented by Complex, and more — will introduce 50th-anniversary collections... In the opening of the press release, Disney mentioned that as part of the announcements there will be "reimagined Disney Parks and Cruise Line offerings."
The article adds that the April's Star Wars Celebration at the Los Angeles Convention Center has already sold out.

There's more Star Wars news, writes long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 A light saber used by Darth Vader in the "Star Wars" movies The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi sold Thursday for nearly $5 million in an auction. The light saber, which was used in the climactic duel in Cloud City in which Vader tells Luke Skywalker "I am your father" sold for $4.875 million at the Ultimate Star Wars Auction held by Heritage Auctions. The sale marks a world auction record for any "Star Wars" collectible, according to the auction house.
The previous record was Heritage's $3,750,000 sale of Luke Skywalker's lightsaber and severed hand effects rig on July 15, 2026. And they're still auctioning more Star Wars memorabilia...

The original film? Or the "original" film?

[EmagGeek]

Not holding out a new hope here.

Re:

[Phact]

Now I'm feeling old! I saw it in the theater.

Re:

[martin-boundary]

Me too! Did you see the extra Wookie adventure story before the main feature?

Re:

[Spinlock_1977]

I saw it at a drive-in. Chevy van parked backwards, doors flung open, pillows and sleeping bags to lounge on, cute high-school friend beside me, a mickey of run and two cans of coke. Damn, I'm very very old. And Han shot first.

Re:

[drnb]

You mean how Han shot first? 'm feeling old. The original run was before my time but I can recall excitement to see it on Sunday night movies on TV. That was a long time ago.

Seeing it in the theatre is a very different experience. I grew up only seeing 2001 and Lawrence of Arabia on TV, once I saw them in a theatre I better understood why they were so special.

Seeing the 1990 TMNT in theaters a few years ago s

[BitterEpic]

When you see a movie first on TV, then in the theater, you suddenly realize they are designed for crowds like a play. The embellishing music is leveraged to get everyone excited like a musician doing a guitar solo and everyone feeds off of each other's excitement. You think you know something... but it's different.

Re:

[UnknowingFool]

In the original, I remember Han was the only one that shot. Later Lucas modified it so that Greedo shooting a split second later. Then Lucas changed it to Greedo shot first. Lucas justified it that Han could not be a cold blooded killer as he was to marry Leia. Lucas did not need to do that as Obi-wan had make it clear they were entering a dangerous bar. Luke almost got into a fight for just standing and the patrons did not react to an arm being severed. After Greedo was shot, the rest of the bar barely rea

Can't stip milking the dead cow

[Mr. Dollar Ton]

Milk or pus, doesn't matter, advertise enough and they will come.

Disney did a good thing

[drnb]

Dude, take off the political lens once in a while. Disney did a good thing, just accept it and move on. You don't need to find weak tangential criticisms to reinforce your political ideology. Some films are a very difference experience in a theatre, this is one of them. People who only saw it on TV will have a new appreciation and understanding of why the phenomena happened. Its just a fun movie, the corporate plutocrats are not coming to get you.

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[drinkypoo]

Its just a fun movie, the corporate plutocrats are not coming to get you.

Anyone else having flashbacks to They Live here?

We can see through your fake skin, bot.

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[drnb]

Its just a fun movie, the corporate plutocrats are not coming to get you.

Anyone else having flashbacks to They Live here?

That was a good movie too. :-)

Re:

[rsilvergun]

Honestly I just want to buy high quality blu-rays of the unedited original films. I have the DVD laserdisc rips from years ago and those are okay but the blu-rays are pretty incredible except you have to put up with those stupid fucking changes.

Which original Star Wars ?

[Mirnotoriety]

I thought Lucas kept changing it and destroyed the first version? There's at least fifteen different original versions. Which one is Lucas going to use.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Seeing how he no longer owns it, he isn't going to use any.

original 1977 version of Star Wars

[drnb]

I thought Lucas kept changing it and destroyed the first version? There's at least fifteen different original versions. Which one is Lucas going to use.

From the link in the summary:
"Lucasfilm and Disney have restored the original Star Wars (1977) ... Screenings of the original 1977 version of Star Wars"
https://deadline.com/2026/11/l... [deadline.com]

How you'll know it's the 50th year version)

[Provocateur]

How can I tell that I am watching the 50th year anniversary celebration movie version?

Harrison Ford comes out, wiping makeup and sweat off with a hand towel, looks at the audience and says, You're still here??

"It's over. Go home." And shows the towel to the camera, and printed on it is The End

AI based upscaling

[drnb]

How do you release a film that was shot in 35mm film in a 70mm format? Or are you just zooming in?

AI based upscaling of course :-)

Or upscaling done by a human designed algorithm, that works too. If all you are doing is doubling the resolution once, as in the 35 to 70 case, it works pretty well.

Re:

[supabeast!]

It’s called a blow up. They expose 70mm film with the 35mm film. Star Wars was exhibited as a blow up way back in the seventies. Lucas destroyed his original prints and negatives. So it’s possible that the print Disney used for this restoration and release was an old blow up print from a private collection.

Theatre is an entirely different experience

[drnb]

When I was 7. Nostalgia is lame. Grow up, people.

A good story is a good story. 50 year old, hundreds of years old, thousands of years old. Its more than nostalgia. And Lucas knew that, hence the influence of such older works. Admittedly, someone who only saw the reworked Lucas version saw a lesser movie than the original. So this will be a good thing for younger generations to see, more comparable to our experience in 1977.

I was fortunate and had a local theatre that would occasionally show classics. I saw Lawrence of Arabia and 2001 as a child on TV. However in my college years seeing it on the big screen with a big sound system was a very different experience. I saw lots of details on that big screen that were lost on the TV. Only then did I have a true appreciation of what the original audience saw and felt back in the day.

Re:

[NotEmmanuelGoldstein]

Translation: Old stuff is "lame".

That's why no-one should read The Merchant of Venice, or Gulliver's Travels, and a translation of the The Odyssey is pure insanity.

Someone dies in Star Wars, so I guess that's a PG rating for a story about 1-dimensional characters. Maybe, "1-dimensional" doesn't entertain you anymore but that doesn't stop the story having a point that adults can value.

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[Travelsonic]

Telling people to grow up while making arguments like that is kinda ironic.

I'll go for the nostalgia

[davidwr]

Give me as close to the 1977 experience as possible and I'll pay 1977-adjusted prices and stand in line around the block for hours with fellow fans.

I don't need a fancy theater or film format.

But I do need the original theater release without any edits save perhaps for a pre-roll or post-credit scene acknowledging this is a remaster and a thank-you to everyone who made the Star Wars phenomena possible, hopefully with a tasteful memorial to those who are no longer with us.

Want

[JBMcB]

There's what you want, and what you *really* want.

You don't want the original theatrical experience. It had technical problems. Matte problems, color timing issues, blown out whites in some scenes, really rough audio in some spots.

The 1990's THX remasters fixed some of these issues, but not all.

What you *really* want is the remastering done for the Blu-rays, without all the edits and extra CGI crap thrown in. They fixed the matte problems so the spaceships aren't surrounded by grey blocks. They fixed the color timing so the lightsabers don't randomly disappear from frame to frame. They fixed the audio issues so it doesn't sound like Han is talking to Luke from a different room when they are standing next to each other having a conversation.

In my opinion, as long as the changes are subtle and fix issues instead of pointlessly adding anything, they are fine. Digitally clean up a matte painting so an infinitely long Death Star corridor looks more convincing? As long as you substantially keep the original look, sure, why not. Add a bunch of random aliens to Mos Eisley? Nope.

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[drinkypoo]

If the point is nostalgia, maybe they do want all of those things.

I bet Sony will sell their retro headphones that were slashvertised here the other day, not despite but because of their use of retro drivers.

Mini-NES sells because of carpal controllers. (TBF they were/are pretty good for precision.)

I personally want what you say they want, because I was too young to catch the original release of the original film. In fact, I only saw RotJ that way. As such I do in fact want the unreinvented version, which I

Re:

[serviscope_minor]

If the point is nostalgia, maybe they do want all of those things.

Probably not. You want to remember the good bits but it helps if they are in fact better.

It's like playing doom on a vaguely modern engine, where it looks retro, sure with the sprites and 2.5D and etc, but supports my screen resolution and has limits removed vs playing doom on original 320x200 with small levels.

I think the sweet spot is keeping all the best bits of the original, i.e. you know what was filmed not the shite Lucas added later wh

Han Didn't Shoot First, revision 20

[backslashdot]

I can't wait to see the latest AI-generated revision of Han definitively not shooting until Greedo had fired off six phaser blasts, done a battery swap followed by six more, then an RPG (which jammed at first, so he had to send it for repairs and get it back in the mail before it would fire), and then a barrage of spitballs.

Milk that cow

[fluffernutter]

Milk that cow! Milk it!

Release the actual original restored

[HnT]

No more actual-menace GeorgeLucas doing another round of useless, destructive edits five decades later.
Release a restored version of the actual original without all the BS!

Space Maude

[RoccamOccam]

50th Anniversary of the Star Wars Holiday Special in just a couple of years! Can't wait!

also be displayed in its original 16:9 format

[unami]

The original was shot in 2.35:1, not 16:9. The one thing I don't get with this rerelease: Star Wars was shot on 35mm. Where do they get the data from to blow it up to 70mm?

Re:

[Travelsonic]

IIRC if they are scanning the original negatives, there actually is quite a lot of "upscaling" without any data loss at all via scanning the original film due to how much detail the film actually captures (depending on things like the film stock used and its composition, lenses, et cetera) but don't quote me on that.

original 16:9 format ?

[chiefscienceofficer]

I don't think so. 1.77 did not exist in 1977. 1.85 I would believe or 2:.35 or 2.41 but there is no way it was originally released in 1:77. The wide screen release formats required special lenses in the theater. There is no way the original was shot in 1.77. While I am not a film historian I do know a thing or two about film.

70mm

[groobly]

Was it shot on 70mm? If not, then what is the point of releasing it on 70mm?