What Disney should have done was a straight remake of the OT with a new cast and modern CGI.
For the love of God, no. Star Wars has already had:
1. The actual original theatrical release of Star Wars. Unlike all later Star Wars films, the reformatted home video release did not happen until years later in 1982, because home video releases were *not* typically done for every movie back then, only exceptionally successful ones.
2. The limited first-run theatrical release of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. This is the actual "original" TESB.
3. The general theatrical release of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, with several last-second improvements to the end sequence. This is the "original" TESB that most people saw. Followed by a reformatted home video release.
4. The slightly revised theatrical re-release of Star Wars, now retroactively re-titled as "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope" to align with TESB. Ain't no home release of this one.
5. The original theater release of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, followed by its reformatted format home video release.
6. The incredibly rare, Japan-exclusive "Special Collection" widescreen letterbox LaserDisc releases of the ANH, TESB, and ROTJ. Released one at a time, not as a trilogy set.
7. The re-revised second home release of Star Wars: A New Hope, with remixed audio and a 3% speed-up to fit the LaserDisc and CED versions onto a single disc. The LaserDisc versions of this release were the first letterboxed widescreen home release in the U.S. market. Matching LaserDisc widescreens of TESB and ROTJ followed; like the Japanese release, one at a time and not a trilogy set.
8. The "Definitive Collection" LaserDisc release of the entire three-part trilogy, with a cleaned-up remastering and remixed audio for all films. This was the first trilogy package release.
9. The "Special Collector's Edition" VHS remix of the Original Trilogy. This is mostly a VHS version of the "Definitive Collection" LaserDisc release, and is the only VHS release in letterbox widescreen, but added a self-advertising "one last time" pre-introduction clip and also included the documentary From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga. This is the first version I personally saw, because it's what my local public library had.
10. The Star Wars Trilogy "Special Edition", theatrical releases and subsequent home releases.
11. The three Prequel films, each followed by its own DVD home release. . . all of which were extended cuts differing from the theatrical.
12. "Limited Edition" home DVD re-releases of the Special Edition trilogy, including the last authorized re-release of the not-Special Edition as bonus discs. Except they're not actually the original-originals, but a slight modificatiion of the '93 LaserDisc release with ANH's title crawl digitally retconned to the original "Star Wars".
13. Theatrical re-release of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace in 3D. This was originally supposed to be the first of a full set of six 3D re-releases, and was the last George Lucas revision pre Disney sale, but the other five 3D remakes were cancelled due to poor sales. Persistent rumors followed that Disney *had* the 3D remakes, but just never released them.
14. Individual Blu-Ray steelbook home releases of all six films, all with further alterations. No official "Edition" title, but amounts to, "Special-Special Edition" for the OT and "Special Edition" for the PT. Followed by a compiled nine-disc "The Complete Saga" box set, with the six films plus three discs of bonus content.
15. Digital download release of all six films. Mostly identical to the Blu-Ray release, but with refreshed opening logos and fanfares due to rights issues -- the 20th Century Fox logo and fanfare had to be removed, and since the Fox fanfare overlapped into the screen time of the Lucasfilm logo, the audio for the Star Wars part of that logo sequence was revised as well using recycled elements of the closing credits music.
16. Disney+ streaming release of all nine films. With the earlier six remastered AGAIN in 4K HDR, and with further "minor" adjustments in color, compositing, and effects to the OT films. The Fox logo and fanfare return, along with the corresponding original Star Wars fanfare, but the Lucasfilm logo is now the larger grey Disney-era version rather than the green original one. This version was then also released as the 4K UHD Blu-Ray home however-many-re-release, marking the first damn time something wasn't revised AGAIN. And also the first nine-film box set.
Edit: I forgot the Japanese LaserDisc edition. Obscure as that is, it's one of the 'holy grail' finds for hardcore OT fans because it is *the* highest video quality release of the mostly-original version ever made, even more so than the "Definitive Collection" U.S. Laserdiscs.
Edit Edit: Oh right, the 3D re-re-release....
Last edited: