If you think one of those things is not like the other, you’re about to be sorely disappointed. This weekend Orlando, Florida is host to the Star Wars Celebration V (we guess it’s the Empire Strikes Back themed one?), and the con has already been the source of news that will be debated for a while among fans.
Some of the news was a much more expected surprise, as yesterday when George Lucas announced that both Star Wars trilogies will be coming to Blu-Ray within the next year, and showed a deleted scene from Return of the Jedi.
More info, including video, below.
What We Know
- All six films will be released in 2011 for the 35th anniversary of A New Hope‘s debut, so presumably at or around May 25th, although Lucas did not give a firm release date.
- The versions on the discs will not be the original theatrical ones. Apparently “restoring the original versions in high enough quality would cost too much.” Although it might have been easier if Lucas hadn’t tried to have them all destroyed in the 90’s.
- There will be special features, including deleted scenes, some of which weren’t culled from the movie until they’d already been through post production. (You can see one below.)
What We Don’t Know
- Whether you’ll have to buy all six at a time. (Probably.)
- How much the set will cost. (Probably a lot.)
Lucas also awarded guest and fan Jon Stewart with a singular gift, both metaphorically and literally, as it is the only one manufactured. His likeness in Storm Trooper form.
Isn’t he a little short for a…
Oh, never mind.
And now, since you’ve been so patient, here’s the promised deleted footage from RotJ. It would have been used as Luke’s introduction, the first time viewers have seen him since he received his bionic hand.
(info via engadget, Jon Stewart Storm Trooper pics via Bleeding Cool.)
