Well, Star Wars really is under new ownership. Rather than milking every last penny from the series, Deadline has revealed that Disney and Lucasfilm have made the decision to delay the planned 3D re-releases for Episodes II through VI in order to focus on “rebooting the franchise” with Star Wars: Episode VII, which is of course now under the stewardship of Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness director J.J. Abrams.
“Lucasfilm has decided to postpone this fall’s scheduled release of Star Wars Episodes II and III in 3D,” reads the official statement on StarWars.com. “Given the recent development that we are moving forward with a new Star Wars trilogy, we will now focus 100 percent of our efforts on Star Wars: Episode VII in order to ensure the best possible experience for our fans. We will post further information about our 3D release plans at a later date.”
It was back in September 2010 when Lucasfilm announced that the Star Wars saga was to receive the 3D conversion treatment. However, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace opened in February 2012 to a modest $23m (which isn’t surprising, seeing as it’s the most derided of the series), while Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith were scheduled for release in September and October of this year. Still, assuming the 3D conversions are already in the can, I’m willing to bet these get a run out at some point in the lead up to 2015…