It only took 50 years, but the original Star Wars is coming to IMAX.
Lucasfilm and Disney announced Tuesday that Star Wars (1977) will be presented in IMAX for the first time ever as part of its 50th anniversary re-release on February 19, 2027.
Star Wars: Starfighter follows on May 28, 2027, the 50th anniversary weekend of the original’s premiere, with IMAX 70mm film prints of its own.
Star Wars 1977 In IMAX For The First Time Ever
Per the announcement at StarWars.com, the newly restored version of the original movie — later renamed Star Wars: A New Hope — will play a select number of IMAX 70mm film locations, along with select regular theaters for a limited time.
The movie has never had an IMAX presentation of any kind before, digital or film.
The February re-release is part of Lucasfilm’s yearlong 50th anniversary celebration, which is exactly what a Hasbro rep who works on the Star Wars line told us about at San Diego Comic-Con: Lucasfilm is going big for the 50th with the Original Trilogy, Clone Wars, and everything Star Wars, with tons of partner companies on board.
Star Wars Celebration 2027 runs April 1-4 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, landing right between the two IMAX releases.
Starfighter Gets The Full IMAX Film Treatment
Star Wars: Starfighter was filmed for IMAX and shot with IMAX-certified film cameras, and it’s being converted to IMAX 70mm film prints that will play a select number of IMAX film locations.
IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond confirmed the movie for IMAX back in August on Matt Belloni’s The Town podcast.
Gelfond has been on the movie’s set, calling it “a throwback to the Harrison Ford kind of Star Wars” and telling Belloni to take that to the bank.
Everything else around the movie points the same way.
A Hasbro rep told us at Comic-Con that Ryan Gosling is heavily involved with Starfighter in the vein of Ryan Reynolds and Deadpool.
Screenwriter Jonathan Tropper says he set out to write a simpler movie free of Skywalker saga history.
And the leaked Fanga fight sequence reads like Gosling getting the snot kicked out of him in pure Han Solo fashion.
Release Info
Star Wars (1977) returns to theaters and IMAX on February 19, 2027.
Star Wars: Starfighter opens in theaters and IMAX, including IMAX 70mm film, on May 28, 2027, three days after Star Wars turns 50.
Shawn Levy directs from a script by Jonathan Tropper, with Ryan Gosling starring as Kade Auberon — confirmed with the first footage at D23 — alongside Flynn Gray, Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre, Jamael Westman, Daniel Ings, and Amy Adams.
Levy produces with Kathleen Kennedy, while Gosling, Mary McLaglen, Josh McLaglen, Dave Filoni, and Dan Levine executive produce.
