Believe it's still a couple years till the get full distro rights to 5 and 6, so anything before this just speculation anyway.
Granted this is just one person's opinion (they are the boss of Lucasfilm though), but this is telling:
In a recent interview with the
Steelewars podcast, Kennedy was asked if fans would ever see the original versions of the movies. "I wouldn't touch those, are you kidding me?" she said, via
Movieweb. "Those will always remain [Lucas's]." Kennedy also states that there is nothing legally stopping Disney from releasing them, but it sounds very unlikely to happen.
I almost like her reaction, in that, it's like she feels it is not her place to do such a thing as it would be insulting to Lucas (meaning, that if someone should ok and oversee it, that she feels that is Lucas). I think that's fair, even if it is disappointing.
I really think the original versions is like Pink Floyd or the Beatles. At this stage the original sources are likely not going to hold up well enough to make anyone but purists be ok with what the end product would be. There's too many ways they can fuck it up (and just further piss off the purists) and there's likely only so much to gain. Would be nice to have some pinnacle original transfer, but in they're so tied to the time that no matter how good the transfer is, it will never give you the full reality of being what your nostalgia promises.
That being said, as long as they don't start trying to shutdown the fan movements to produce the best quality original versions, I'm ok with how they're handling this. Yes it sucks that Lucas chose to do what he did with the Blu-ray transfers, but at least there's been some manner of accessing them possible.
theres a lot of home edited versions all over the internet. this really isnt an issue.
It's been a while, and if I remember there were multiple projects, what are the ones worth checking out?
I remember delving into finding the changes, and I've seen the movies on VHS (pretty sure the original versions at some time), but I can't even really say for sure that I have seen the original versions of them, and would kinda like to.
Honestly, they probably will released within a few years of George's death.
Star Wars pretty much did lose its coolness with the prequels and the special editions. people used to analyze every single frame of that movie, and like they would take some extra in a scene and make him into this epic hero. There was that much demand for the universe.
It will be interesting to see. I could see him pulling a fuck you and doing something to try and make it not possible. Hopefully maybe he'd try do something like pay for the highest quality transfers possible, and then try to work a deal to make them public domain. Live up to his ideal of letting people access art in original form that he once championed.