Here's the thing. The original Star Wars has been officially screened in its unaltered form exactly twice since 1997, both times at a UK film festival last year. In 2027, it gets a proper theatrical run.
Lucasfilm announced that Star Wars: A New Hope will screen on IMAX 70mm starting February 19, 2027 — the first time the film has ever played the format. The prints will be struck from a 'newly restored version of the original movie,' the studio said, and the screening will use the original cut, not the digitally remastered edition that added scenes and CG effects George Lucas spent decades tinkering with. How the restoration was done has not been disclosed.
For a large slice of the fanbase, that detail is the whole story. The unaltered 1977 cut is the franchise's white whale — legally available almost nowhere, officially suppressed for nearly three decades. Putting it on a 59-by-79-foot screen with John Williams' score in 12-channel surround sound is either a gift or a very well-timed marketing move ahead of the 50th anniversary. Probably both.
Also on the 2027 IMAX slate: Star Wars: Starfighter, the newest entry in the series, set to debut May 28, 2027 — exactly 50 years after the first film's opening weekend. The new film was shot digitally on Sony's IMAX-certified CineAlta Venice 2 cameras in 8.6K source and 4K master format. That means it will require upscaling and digital conversion to reach IMAX 70mm's resolution ceiling, which can exceed 14K. The gap between native and converted is real, but converted IMAX 70mm still clears every other theatrical format by a wide margin.
The demo is not the product, but in this case the product is a 48-year-old print and a brand-new blockbuster sharing the same format in the same calendar year. Lucasfilm is threading a needle: nostalgia and novelty, analog grain and digital spectacle, the franchise's origin and its next chapter. Whether Starfighter earns its place next to the film that started everything is a question May 2027 will answer. The 70mm booking, at least, is already worth making.