Lucasfilm Has a New 4K Restoration of Star Wars: A New Hope

When Rogue One: A Star Wars Story director Gareth Edwards paid a visit to Lucasfilm headquarters in San Francisco he got a look at an all-new 4K restoration of Star Wars: A New Hope…

In a recent interview with website Little White Lies (via The Playlist), Rogue One director Gareth Edwards revealed that he has seen a new version of Star Wars: A New Hope, the 1977 film from George Lucas that started the greatest cinematic dynasty in the history of cinema.

"“On day one, we were in Lucasfilm in San Francisco with Industrial Light and Magic and John[Knoll], our supervisor, he said that they’ve got a brand new 4K restoration print of ‘A New Hope’ — it had literally just been finished. He suggested we sit and watch it.”"

I guess it pays to be the director of the biggest film of 2016, in Rogue One, as well as the man at the helm of the first Star Wars standalone film.

Frustratingly, we don’t know if this new 4K version is it the original theatrical version of A New Hope, or if it is Lucas’ much maligned Special Edition version. You know the one, the Special Edition with all of those additional special effects and extra scenes that added nothing of real value to the film.

For now, however, Disney has no say in what happens with A New Hope, as the film was retained by 20th Century Fox through 2020. I guess $4 billion isn’t enough to get the entire collection, even when you’re Disney and you have all the money in the world.

With 2017 being the 40th anniversary of Star Wars: A New Hope, this all-new 4K version of the film could be something 20th Century Fox plans on releasing in conjunction with that occasion. Hopefully, Han will still be shooting first, in this version.

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We want to hear from you: Are you excited about a 4K version of A New Hope? Or, would you rather 20th Century Fox just leave it alone until Disney gets the film in 2020? Let us know in the comments below and on social media.

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