When DVD first emerged, studios rushed to put their old movies on digital disc, smelling there was plenty of opportunity to make cash from their back catalogue. One notable hold-out was George Lucas, who resisted bringing the original Star Wars trilogy to the format until 2004, long after virtually every other major movie has already made its DVD debut.
Many thought we might have to wait a similar amount of time for the films to hit Blu-ray, but that doesn’t appear to be true, as IGN is reporting that at the Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo over the weekend, LucasFilm director of fan relations Steve Sansweet revealed that a new Blu-ray set featuring all the Star Wars films is in the works.
He said: “We have been at work for a couple of years working on – I won’t call it the Ultimate Set because we keep finding stuff – but, a very full set of all six movies on Blu-ray with lots of extra material. We’re finding all kinds of scenes from dailies that have never been seen before. Beyond all of those things that you know about… there are some real treasures.”
When will the set come out? Sansweet says, “We’re not ready to announce exactly when it’s coming out, but it won’t be in the too distant future.”
Although there’s nothing offical, The Digital Bits is reporting that they’ve heard it’ll hit show shelves during October 2011. Nothing been officially announced as yet, but going by how Lucasfilm normally do things, expect the set to be revealed with much pomp next spring, ready for its autumn release.