Not even J.J. Abrams can make a re-release of the original 'Star Wars' cuts happen

If you thought that maybe with Disney's 2012 purchase of Lucasfilm, or its 2019 purchase of 21st Century Fox, or the launch of Disney+ we'd finally get a new release of the de-specialized versions of the original Star Wars trilogy, we've got bad news.

In an interview promoting the upcoming Rise of Skywalker, Abrams told Now This that, actually, he has asked Disney about getting those versions of the films back into wider circulation beyond old VHS copies.

Disney said no.

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With the Maclunkey debacle as a prompt, Abrams said that of course he would love to see the original theatrical versions of George Lucas' original trilogy released commercially again.

"Yes, and I have asked about this," Abrams says, "cause who wouldn't want to see that? But I’ve been told that, for reasons that I quite don’t understand, that that’s not necessarily possible. Which is too bad because that was the thing that I loved."

Abrams relays a story about a debate he had with someone else during the making of The Force Awakens in which each person remembered a scene between Darth Vader and the Emperor a different way. Turns out they were both right thanks to edits that had been made between the original version of the scene and the "Special Edition" of the scene.

"I guess it's what George Lucas wanted," Abrams says. "I respect that, although I also feel like there's something about the original theatrical version that was, for so many people, the thing they loved as it was."

"Maclunkey!" was just the latest reminder of how Lucas has continued to tinker with his original space opus over the years, decades after its original release. The last time the theatrical versions of the original trilogy were given an official release was part of Best Buy's 2006 special DVD set which was essentially a transfer of the laserdisc versions.

So, as the (allegedly) final film of the Skywalker saga prepares to unspool at theaters across the world, it's good to know there's still plenty of things for fans to argue about online.