20th Century Fox Fanfare and Unaltered Star Wars Trilogy Returning After Disney/Fox Merger?

Now that Disney and 20th Century Fox have merged, fans of the galaxy far, far away are getting more and more excited about the idea of getting unaltered versions of the original Star Wars trilogy as well as the return of the legendary fanfare.

What are the chances of this happening? Well, even though Fox is now under Disney, it still won't happen if Star Wars creator George Lucas isn't on board.

As Star Wars News Net explains, Lucas has the final say on whether A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi can be remastered and re-released. Unfortunately, he seems to be pretty adamant about keeping the changes he made, no matter how fans hate them.

However, the publication points out that Lucas has changed his mind on a lot of things about the franchise in the past. Maybe the Disney and Fox merger could nudge him in the right direction this time, although nothing is for certain yet.

There could be remastered versions of the original Star Wars films somewhere within Lucasfilm though. After all, they had to make them for the small original trilogy snippets in Rogue One and The Last Jedi. However, it doesn't look like they plan to release those to the public at the moment.

For now, the above publication thinks that the best place to get remastered versions of the unedited originals are from the fandom itself--those who take the time to burn them into Blu-ray discs--without selling them for profit, of course, because it would be illegal if they did.

What the Disney and Fox merger actually achieves as far as Star Wars content goes is this: Lucasfilm finally gets access to the theatrical, home video, television, and digital distribution rights to the Star Wars originals and prequels.

Sure, Fox will retain the distribution rights to A New Hope as well as the theatrical and home video rights to all three prequels and the last two original films, but Lucasfilm, in turn, gets the television and digital rights to those five movies, which means more content for Disney's streaming service.

Either way, the possibility of the return of the 20th Century Fox fanfare is clearly now an option for Disney. Star Wars News Net says that the company can totally use the masterpiece in future Star Wars films.

This would be a great way to take advantage of the Star Wars-related assets Lucasfilm got out of the multi-billion dollar deal. In addition, the fanfare has been such an integral experience for fans who saw Star Wars during the early years of its release and the cultural phenomenon it created that seeing it in new films is enough to make people go to theaters and buy copies. This is crucial at a time where the Star Wars fandom is divided. Read more about the story behind the fanfare here.

There are a lot of Star Wars projects in the works that could use the fanfare. There's the rumored Old Republic trilogy from Game of Thrones duo David Benioff and D.B. Weiss as well as the films being made by Rian Johnson. It's unlikely it will be added in Star Wars: Episode IX since Fox had nothing to do with the production of that film.

Also Read: Disney's Poor Handling of Fox Acquisition Left Employees Panicking and Angry