It's officially official: George Lucas announces 'Star Wars' on Blu-ray

Posted Monday, August 16, 2010 at 9:53 AM Central
Last updated Tuesday, August 17, 2010 at 10:16 AM Central

by Tim Briscoe

At this weekend's officially sanctioned Star Was Celebration V fan event, George Lucas announced that the saga would be coming to Blu-ray in Fall 2011.

Finally.

Lucas made the remarks at the convention's "Main Event" on Saturday where he was interviewed by Jon Stewart. "I wish I could say it was coming out this year," he said, "but it will come out next year."

According to starwars.com, the set will "feature all six live-action Star Wars feature films, with the highest picture and audio quality, along with extensive special features."

Those in attendance were treated to a deleted scene from Return of the Jedi that's destined for the Blu-ray release. The fully-completed scene features Luke Skywalker piecing together a new light saber on Tatooine shortly before making it over to Jabba the Hutt's palace.

You can see the scene here as captured by someone in the audience at the event.

Master Luke himself Mark Hamill came out to describe the scene. From starwars.com:

"I had the black cloak, the glove, and I thought, wow, this time around I get to be the antagonist. Little did I know I was predicting the path of the prequels," said Hamill, noting the similarities to Luke in this scene and Anakin Skywalker's appearance.

As long as I've been waiting for Star Wars on Blu-ray, this deleted scene overwhelmed that announcement. For me, it instantly become more compelling to witness a few unknown seconds from the Holy Trilogy.

My initial thought was "Yeah, why did they decide to cut this scene?" It's a bit mysterious as to where Luke gets this new green-bladed weapon in Episode VI. Attentive viewers knew Luke lost his dad's blue saber in Episode V -- but that was ultimately Daddy Darth's fault.

Aboard Jabba's sail barge, R2-D2 just shoots it out of his dome when Luke waves the signal. Besides being the most bad-ass droid of them all, is R2 also a light saber dispenser, popping them out whenever a Jedi needs one?

No, since 1983 we've just had to assume that Luke bought a new light saber at the local Jedi-Mart. I kinda figured that when he went to fill up his landspeeder, he picked up one along with a pack of cigarettes.

I bet he stored his smokes in R2 also.

Here's another video which does a better job of setting up the deleted scene (as well as others!) but doesn't have the footage itself:

Update: Videos have been taken down

As you can see (or not see) above, Lucasfilm is forcing the removal of the captured video. While I'm sure the videos will continue to pop up briefly, it seems we'll have to wait for the Blu-ray to see it again in all its glory.

If it's any consolation, the New York Times article has a still from the deleted scene.