During the past few weeks leading into the DVD and Blu-ray release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Disney-Lucasfilm has been hard at work releasing promo clips and other materials to keep fans hyped about the home copies. It's bad enough that retailers get exclusive rights to different features of the home copies, but apparently only the Blu-ray version is getting the highly-publicized documentary and deleted scenes.
According to multiple sources, the more expensive Blu-ray and special edition Blu-ray feature has Secrets of the Force Awakens: A Cinematic Journey, as well as Kylo Ren and Leia Organa's deleted scenes. There's also no link provided of the digital copy of the DVD, so fans who purchased the DVD weren't able to watch the film digitally.
It's also worth mentioning that the DVD's Amazon listings didn't mention having any extras, but that the two-disc Blu-ray editions state that the documentaries and deleted scenes are included. Meanwhile, other retailers like Tesco were vague about the additional content in their copies.
Before the complaints, a Disney spokesperson released a statement saying:
As a company we are committed to seeking out the best ways to provide audiences with access to Disney content. Each territory is different, and we evaluate and enact distribution strategies on a market-by-market basis. In the UK this means we do not include extras across our DVD products.
Our Blu-ray and digital-download offerings for The Force Awakens are providing audiences with a wealth of extras including a special documentary, behind-the-scenes looks and much more that are now being enjoyed by thousands.
A frustrated customer complained to Amazon and said:
It's star wars, and all you get is the movie, thats it, no extras, no making of, no deleted scenes, nothing.
The least I would expect of a star wars DVD is some short clips of interviews or something. But, nothing, nada, not a thing.
In light of recent events, some fans have taken to Twitter to vent out:
@starwars Not happy - no extras on the Force Awakens DVD. Not all of us have Blu-Ray! Rip-off!
— Peter Lee (@MeButPublic)
April 18, 2016
@craigward16 Hey, check out https://t.co/Q8Vgmp14re there are a lot of people putting up their Codes for free.
— red6ft10 (@red6ft10)
April 19, 2016
For those of us who bought the DVD coz we don't have a Blu-Ray player can we buy the @starwars#ForceAwakens extras disc separately?
— davie hay (@jingo67)
April 18, 2016
Months of talk about Blu-Ray *and* DVD extras for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and the DVD is bare. Even Attack of the Clones fared better.
— Joseph Sutton (@BadmanBegins)
April 18, 2016
Disney has not released a statement on the matter.
As much entertainment as Disney has provided with The Force Awakens, it can't be escaped that the movie industry is a huge money-making industry. Naturally, deleted scenes and extra features wouldn't be released in just one platform. Hopefully, this would change with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Star Wars: Episode VIII, and other Star Wars films after them.
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