No caption . No CG characters in Mos Eisley . Han shoots first . Those things and more were all back this past weekend asthe original , unedited , unaltered versionof George Lucas’1977Star Warswas availableon the Roku app Cinema Box . Or so we ’ve read . That app is no longer available on Roku and with it wentStar Warstoo .
For those who may not know , during the 20th anniversary ofStar Wars , George Lucas released the Special Editions , new versions of the film with a bunch of changes that he hold preferable to the original . And so , the Special Editions became the only rendering Lucasfilm would release formally . When you watch the movies on video , Disney+ , or maybe even in a theater , they ’re the Special Editions . The one elision was a 2006 videodisc press release that included the master as special features .
That , according toScreenrant , was the version that was upload to Roku ’s Cinema Box this preceding weekend . However , Men ’s Journalnoticed that by March 4 , not only was the originalStar Warsgone , so was the Cinema Box app as a whole . Oops . io9 reached out to Lucasfilm for possible comment or clarification but did n’t get wind back as of publication .
Drew Struzan’s poster for the Star Wars Special Edition, which was not the version on Roku this week.Image: Lucasfilm
Nevertheless , even if you leave out this total trial by ordeal , it makes you appreciate a few thing . One , how fast the office that be can oppose to something like this . And two , that while Lucasfilm and Disney may desire to jostle the Special Editions down our throat , there is still a large , large audience hungry for the versions they saw develop up . The ones they watched with their family on channel 9 on a Sunday good afternoon . The ones they wore the VHS tapes out on . And heck , most people are even o.k. with the original minor alterations Lucas made , like calling the first photographic film “ Episode IV . ” It ’s just the bigger stuff — Greedo , Jedi Rocks , the Endor Celebration — that still to this mean solar day experience a footling off .
And yet , as we ’ve contend on this very website , if not for those Special Editions being released in theaters , Star Warsmay have had a very different luck . At a fourth dimension when the dealership was reckon to be done , it was their winner in 1997 that gave Lucas the jog he needed to make the prequels , which broughtStar Warsback to extrusion . That later on led to Disney ’s purchase and everything we have today . So , as much as the Special Editions can be dismissed , they did serve a purpose . We just wish they were n’t the only edition we had of a galaxy far , far , away .
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