Original Star Wars footage has made its way into a Disney production. A trailer for Light and Magic, an upcoming documentary TV series on effects house Industrial Light and Magic, contains an iconic moment from the OG Star Wars.
During the montage of action movies that have gotten the ILM touch, featuring Indiana Jones and the MCU in addition to a galaxy far, far away, we get the blowing up of the Death Star. Longtime fans of a long, long time ago will notice this is the shot included in A New Hope pre-tampering from George Lucas in later editions of the science fiction movie.
While a fleeting tease, it’s quite big in the history of the franchise because it’s the first time Disney has acknowledged these cuts of the films. The House of Mouse only hosts the Special Edition versions of the Original Trilogy, offering none of the pre-1990s cuts for new fans. This has long been disappointing, as it means a whole era of the franchise is largely inaccessible.
We shouldn’t get our hopes up that this indicates Disney might be planning to show the Original Trilogy as it first arrived in theatres. George Lucas founded ILM to work on Star Wars, so these shots are foundational to the studio’s legacy.
That said, acknowledgement is something. Famously, it’s believe the original negatives for A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi were burned. That could be all a façade, or simply an inaccurate rumour. Either way, this little sliver could indicate we might get more.
Or it could indicate nothing, and we’re speculating unreasonably. What can we say, we’re suckers for a new hope (sorry, not sorry). For now, we have the documentary itself to look forward to, as well as Andor and Ahsoka.
They join a growing line of Star Wars series on the platform, in addition to the Star Wars movies we know and love.