In 2012, Star Wars The Phantom Menace was rereleased into theaters in 3D. Lucasfilm's plan was to rerelease all of the Star Wars films at the time this way but it never happened. Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, the last two of the prequel trilogy, were planned to release in 2013 but were cancelled abruptly in 2012.
The cancellation was probably because of both a disinterest in 3D by that point and, much more likely, Disney buying Lucasfilm and Star Wars with it. We know for a fact that Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith 3D conversions were done and were actually shown publicly for a brief period of time in 2015 at Star Wars Celebration.
According to a ComingSoon article that detailed the cancellation of the rereleases, the original trilogy was planned but never had a firm release date. From what I've read so far there's very little on the original trilogy, meaning it was likely never actually done.
I don't know how or if it'll be possible to find them and have these released to the public. Phantom Menace's 3D conversion was seemingly never released on Bluray. And outside of that only Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith are confirmed to exist. But as a Star Wars and prequel fan I would love to have these found and released to the public somehow. If you have any tips on finding them please let me know.
Last Edit: Aug 15, 2020 15:43:23 GMT by adventureblur
3D was probably on its way out by the time these releases were happening, but I can't imagine anyone would be disappointed to see the Star Wars saga in theaters again, especially the original trilogy. I believe Disney specifically cancelled these as to not steal thunder from the new Disney Star Wars movies that would be coming out. Even so, I can hardly rationalize completing a remastering of all six films, fully converting three to 3D, and only releasing one.
I suppose you can mark this as "partially lost" since the remasters of all six films were released on both Disney Plus and on 4K Ultra HD (albeit in 2D). I would love a release of these as well, but time hasn't been kind to 3D home releases.
Yes and no. It's definitely not all that popular anymore and it's hard to find a 3D tv or Bluray 3D, but it still seems to be around. You can still buy Bluray 3D copies of new films such as the Aladdin remake and even Rise of Skywalker on Amazon for about the same price as a 4K.
3D was probably on its way out by the time these releases were happening, but I can't imagine anyone would be disappointed to see the Star Wars saga in theaters again, especially the original trilogy. I believe Disney specifically cancelled these as to not steal thunder from the new Disney Star Wars movies that would be coming out. Even so, I can hardly rationalize completing a remastering of all six films, fully converting three to 3D, and only releasing one.
I suppose you can mark this as "partially lost" since the remasters of all six films were released on both Disney Plus and on 4K Ultra HD (albeit in 2D). I would love a release of these as well, but time hasn't been kind to 3D home releases.
Oh yeah, I definitely agree that Disney had a role with these not being released. It's just strange that they would have 3 films completed and ready to go, show them once at a convention, then be done with them altogether. Disney rereleased a ton of their animated works in theaters in 3D and later put them on Bluray 3D, seems strange that they wouldn't at least put Blurays out of these right before Force Awakens. After all they did put the regular blurays out about this time in a special steelbook form, so it would've worked.
Either way these should be released to the public. Star Wars is such a huge and iconic series and having special versions of the films exist but not be released is just wrong. Even if it's some sort of limited edition thing only available on Amazon I'd be fine with it, as long as it's out there.
I did some more research last night and found some interesting information about these rereleases. According to a rumor from Making Star Wars, a reliable Star Wars fan site, a Bluray 3D collection of the prequel trilogy was considered in 2016 to hype up Rogue One heading to theaters.
This lines up with what we know so far about these releases. Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith were shown at Star Wars Celebration in 2015 so it would've been on Disney's mind to release the trilogy around 2015-2016. Force Awakens was released on Bluray 3D around this time as well, being released in November 2016 even though the regular bluray release was in April 2016. This could mean that originally the prequel trilogy 3D was planned to be released the same day as the Force Awakens 3D to hype up Rogue One. Either way, we have a timeframe of when the release was considered. On a side note, the article didn't mention the original trilogy having any 3D release, which adds to my theory that the original trilogy 3D was only planned but never actually worked on.
Outside of this I found two different Amazon links for Phantom Menace bluray 3D. One is from Amazon US and the other Amazon UK. The Amazon UK listing actually has a placeholder box art which was a cool find. Neither have a release date or a way to buy them, meaning they were likely placeholders in case Lucasfilm actually decided to release them.
Post by adventureblur on Aug 15, 2020 16:08:56 GMT
Sorry for the lack of updates, been busy so I haven't been able to do as much research on this as I would like. I was able to do some more digging recently and came up with a few good finds. First off I found the page for Phantom Menace 3D on the Star Wars website using the Wayback Machine and found out that there was a fan event held for the release on opening weekend. It didn't seem like much, mostly just a Facebook event made by Lucasfilm for people going, but it was still an interesting find.
Also I found what appears to be the official logos for Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith 3D. They're not the most mind-blowing thing ever, but it's nice to know that logos and all were done. Makes me wonder if theres more lost promotional material from these releases just waiting to be found. I did reverse image search the logos to see if I could find anything else but there wasn't anything more to add that I haven't already posted on here.
Finally I looked into the Australian rereleases of Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith 3D and couldn't find anything on it. Could be that it was a small release, but I doubt it. Seems unlikely that there would've been a rerelease of Star Wars movies like this without any major publicity. I'll keep looking though.
I doubt the original trilogy ever ended up being remastered into 3D.
There’s not too many 3D moments unless you count the special edition Death Star battle enhancements and the singing yuzzum.
That’s not really what I meant. What I was saying is that Episode I 3D did relatively poorly at the box office, and then Disney’s buyout of Lucasfilm was finalized shortly afterward, and Disney had absolutely no interest in the prequels at the time, and also felt that continuing the 3D theatrical re-releases would distract from the movies they had planned. The second two were only shown at the Celebrations because they were already completed by those respective dates, I would guess (not to mention that critics, prequel haters and average moviegoers are basically a non-issue at something like Star Wars Celebration - almost everyone there would be excited to see them).
After finishing the 3D prequels, Lucasfilm’s work force would probably be too busy working on The Force Awakens and Rogue One to remaster the OT into 3D anyway (which is a shame, because in retrospect, I would have rather gone to see the first six movies in theaters in 3D than see any of the post-buyout movies in theaters in ANY-D).
On a semi-related note, was The Clone Wars movie ever screened in 3D when it was still in theaters?
Last Edit: Aug 19, 2020 3:55:02 GMT by teridaxxd001
I don't think Clone Wars was released in 3D, at least I couldn't find anything on it. It came out in 2008 so 3D was just starting, plus the movie was kinda thrown together so I don't know how much time they had to make a good or even decent 3D conversion. I definitely agree on the OT never making it to 3D. After researching it I couldn't find anything to point towards it being worked on outside of vague plans. Honestly I think that's what disappoints me the most about all of this. Even if the 3D conversions weren't amazing or anything it still would've given people the opportunity to see the original trilogies in theaters, which has become pretty rare since Disney bought Lucasfilm.
Finally a Lost Media subject I can actually have some connection to...
The First Time I saw a Star Wars Movie (other than Lego Star Wars The Padawan Menace) was the Episode 1 3D Rerelease... If I recall the theater I went too had special 3d Glasses with either Darth Maul or Queen Amidala theming...
I think there was an article in the Star Wars Insider Issue 131 where they mentioned plans for doing a 3D rerelease of AotC and RotS... Although it might have just been something like "it'll be cool to see this..."
I think I have that issue somewhere...
Not sure if it helps but I thought you'd like to know...
I believe I’ve heard there’s one 3D shot included on the Disney Plus version of The Phantom Menace. That being the shot of Anakin reaching out with a tool to fix the cable on his podracer.
Last Edit: Apr 9, 2022 18:41:38 GMT by nostalgiaguy