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Star Wars is coming back to movie theaters in 2027 for its 50th anniversary, and Lucasfilm has finally confirmed that it will be the original version, “newly restored,” that will play in theaters for a limited time. It will be a rare opportunity to see the 1977 science-fantasy epic that changed cinema without the alterations and digital effects added years after the fact.
Lucasfilm announced 50th anniversary celebration plans for Star Wars in August, but declined to specify which version of the film would be returning to theaters. On Friday, the company made it official: It’s Star Wars. Not Star Wars: A New Hope. Not Star Wars: Special Edition. Just Star Wars.
Star Wars will return to theaters “everywhere” on Feb. 19, 2027, for a limited time, Lucasfilm said in a post on the official website.
In the years since its release, Lucas has become infamous for going back and tinkering with the edits and special effects throughout the original Star Wars trilogy. For the 20th anniversary of the franchise, Lucasfilm primed the pump for the release of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace with a monthly theatrical re-release of the Star Wars “Special Edition” trilogy, which saw robust changes and even additional scenes rendered with then-state-of-the-art computer graphics. Lucas continued to futz with Star Wars for the next three decades, which is how we wound up with the “Maclunkey Cut” on Disney Plus.
Earlier this year, Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy teamed up with the British Film Institute to screen a print of Star Wars said to be the earliest cut of the original that existed, untouched by its creator’s impulses to tinker. The BFI even went an extra step in preparing the film reels for projection, finding an old, complete version of the original crawl, before “A New Hope” was added to the title, to run in front of the film.
After Lucasfilm teased plans to bring Star Wars back to theaters, longtime fans wondered which version of the film they’d get. Lucas himself had said that the original versions “will disappear” and, in his mind, the unaltered versions “[don’t] really exist anymore.” Fans who bemoan Lucas’ additions and alterations to Star Wars have been resigned to relying on old VHS and Laserdisc copies, or pieced-together versions restored by fans, for decades now.
But soon, more Star Wars fans will get a chance to relive that version of the film — legally.
Lucasfilm says that details on when and where to buy tickets for Star Wars‘ return to theaters in 2027 are forthcoming. In the meantime, here’s a trailer for Star Wars to get you hyped.
