Unaltered original Star Wars Trilogy rumoured to see Blu-ray release

Ever since the Disney corporation purchased the Star Wars franchise and its parent company LucasFilm in 2012, fans have been given a new hope (pun intended) that they might be able to finally enjoy the original, unaltered Star Wars trilogy in a high quality presentation, free of the changes that were made by creator George Lucas for the 1997 special edition release and further modified for subsequent home video releases.

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Whilst Lucas had been steadfast in his shunning of the "half finished movies", the fan community have sought to fill the gap, including one project by a group of well organised fans who are scanning, frame by frame, a well preserved 35mm print. This morning, a report has surfaced from Bleeding Cool that Disney is not only planning to finally relent to fan demands, but that marketing plans for this are already well in motion.

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Even if this particular rumour doesn't come to pass before the release of Star Wars: Episode VII, I still anticipate that this will eventually occur, after all Disney have a great track record of monetizing their products, including acquisitions such as Marvel Studios and The Muppets. Sooner or later, Disney need to produce a new scan of the original film elements, as the current digital intermediate was produced in 2004 at 2K resolutions - a step down from the 4K and 8K scans of classic films that are commonplace today. It is worth noting that before Disney can officially release A New Hope, they need to come to an agreement with Twentieth Century Fox, in a complex deal that has them own the distribution rights to the first film in perpetuity.