1. Not that I've seen, and I've been trying to follow this as best as I can. There's been some chatter about people overhearing Lowrey employees talking about further work, but nothing definite.

2. As Blu-ray is still a relatively small market, it's hard to imagine Lucas passing up a chance to sell us another DVD set, but of course it will have to be pared down from the Blu feature set. As for the set that has Empire of Dreams, that's long been out of print but I see it at the used shops all the time, and ever since the first announcement of this Blu set a while back I see it even more and the price has gotten very low (like $15 for the whole box).

3. That's probably what could push me over the edge too. Right now I have no interest without the original versions of 4-6, but if the deleted scenes are really spectacular, I might convince myself to look for a bargain on this.

Forgot to add,

Widescreen VHS boxset of The Phantom Menace.
Star Wars a Musical Journey DVD (came with ROTS soundtrack)
Story of Star Wars (Walmart bonus disc with AOTC).

I'm refering the scene of Luke in a cave on Tatoine building his lightsaber. It was shown at Comicon and on the internet last summer. It was intended to come before the shot of the droids walking to Jaba's palace.

Okay, not trying to be pedantic, but your incorrect description is what's throwing people off: Luke is actually in Ben's house (as seen in ANH). It's a little confusing cause it's so darkly lit, but it's supposed to be part of the whole "has Luke gone to the dark side?" thing going on with Luke wearing black and stuff.

I imagine that since it was what they used to kick off the marketing for this set it will be included.

Probably would have had more meaning if they kept the original "Revenge" name of RotJ.

Are you 100% sure on that. I've seen the matte painting that would have accompanied this scene. It shows the Falcon, Lukes X-wing and a hold out area where the live action plate would have been. Doesn't look like it would have Ben's house in there. Always seemed more like a cave.

I didn't know twin suns could make shadows do THAT.

Yeah I am 13 years late on this joke, but I just thought of it.

I actually had that poster on my wall when I was a kid, before the movie had come out.

Wow, I thought I was young thinking about how that poster came out when I was in college.

My Star Wars collection to date:

Top row: Star Wars Droids VHS, Faces LD, OT Best Buy tin w/ OOT, VCD set
Second row: Faces LD DVD rips w/ supplement disc, SE LD DVD rips
Third row: Prequel trilogy, Wal-Mart Story of Star Wars, Original trilogy 4 disc box set
Bottom row: Star Wars Musical Journey, R2D2 Beneath the Dome

I also had Star Wars on VHS, and the faces VHS set in Pan and Scan.

I guess after seeing the underground releases and fan edits and what these fans have put together in special features, I'm kind of blah about the release. That combined with the many years of debates about the OOT and the SE and the numerous releases I've kind of been worn down and not super excited about the release.

I still can't believe how bad the artwork is. The 2004 boxset art was perfect. Maybe the individual movie cases will be OK...

Katie Lucas's twitter comment is just fanning the fire.

I've been holding out on buying the 2006 dvds because I thought a better version of the OOT would come out, but after seeing all the long lists of SW editions people own, I don't think I'll be feeling too bad if I buy them now... used for like $2 each.

After reading the Twitter comments, I think we can say that Jar Jar Binks is the second worst creation of George Lucas.

No interest in buying if the unaltered OT is not included. No patience for prequels, and the modified OT just pisses me off.

The best thing put out by Lucasfilm in the last 20 years has been the Star Wars: The Musical Journey DVD. I still watch that, and like I said earlier, I watched ROTJ on Spike.

Scenes are not being added back into the films according to what Lucas said. (Though maybe we should just say that for the OT, he might try to do stuff for the Prequels.)

They're just putting a whole bunch of never before seen stuff together, including that lightsaber scene.

Christmas 1993, I think it was, I got my mom to watch the trilogy on USA. She'd never seen them before that. When it was over, I asked her what she thought, and she said that she expected it to just be silly space stuff but that she saw a ton of religious analogs all centered on...Darth Vader. His rise, fall and redemption were the most obvious storytelling theme of the whole thing to her. Trust me, my mom hasn't had one sip of the Lucas Kool-Aid.

I think too many fans have been caught up in Han Solo, their quest for a Boba Fett action figure with firing rocket pack and learning the names of tertiary characters to realize how peripheral those aspects really are.

Story of Star Wars was with Revenge of the Sith DVD.

It was my understanding that scene was shown specifically as part of the promotional announcement of this forthcoming Blu-ray release, as a preview of the kind of thing that had been retrieved from the vault that we would finally get to see. I cannot imagine after being integral to the announcement that it would be absent.

Cancelling my amazon pre-order due to lack of original OT and the general shittiness of the set.

That whole aspect is in the last 1/3 of Return of the Jedi? Star Wars/ANH has zero about the rise and fall of Darth Vader, simply because he wasn't even written as Lukes father in 1977. Empire doesn't really reveal anything about Vader and his heritage until the final act. The first hour of Jedi is all Jabba and Ewoks, so that leaves the final act of Jedi til you really get into the heart of Darth Vader and his struggle?

I'm sorry, but I don't buy it that anyone can come to that conclusion before the PT came out that Vader's story overrides Lukes in the OT only.

seconded

Where was the rise of Darth Vader again in the OT? Just wondering.

You don't have to be a savant to see themes of sacrifice at the end of ROTJ. Obviously that has religious underpinnings. And truth be told, it is probably the most emotional part of the OT - seeing Darth watching his kid being shocked and deciding to do what he must. But it doesn't make the story, his story.

The story was Luke's story. Lucas said it about a million times in that all those specials he made- comparing Luke's path to Joseph Campbell archetype hero paths, and Darth's final words confirm it:

LUKE
No. You're coming with me. I can't leave you
here. I've got to save you.

ANAKIN
You already have, Luke

Prequels were about Anakin, and the OT were about Luke.

I actually did check out Katie Lucas's twitter and after wading through all the Lady Gaga comments, did find that she posted the cover art was really all the marketing dept. Makes sense.

Considering that five minutes before that, Vader was trying to kill/maim that same kid while threatening to seduce and corrupt the kids sister (as well as his daughter), I found that whole sequence about as emotional as seeing a kid in a shopping cart crying because it's mother won't buy him whatever box of crap he sees in the aisle they're presently in at the supermarket. The desperate, contrived sentimentality in that film (for me anyway) is nauseating.

Also, considering during the whole production of Empire, Jedi was intended to have an entirely different plotline and resolution, it's amazing that they would stumble on 'what the saga was really about' at the proverbial last minute.

I guess I see it as a bunch of different stories (centered around R2-D2).

Buy what you want.

Question: Did anyone need to see the prequels to understand that Anakin Skywalker became the powerful Sith Lord Darth Vader?

The paperbacks in the early days were tagged, "From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker." There's no denying that Luke was our protagonist and point-of-view character. But Luke's story is ultimately defined by his relationship with Darth Vader--and that was true before their lineage was established. From the beginning, we know that Darth Vader killed Luke Skywalker's father. It's personal between those two from the very moment Obi-Wan tells Luke--and us--about that history. That simple conversation between Obi-Wan and Luke was what took the film from being a swashbuckling spectacle and made it compelling.

What else could the prequels have been about that would have mattered, except how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader? I would accept this distinction if it weren't for the fact that Darth Vader is clearly at the heart of the OT, as well. From the moment he boards the Tantive IV and begins strangling rebels, it's clear that this is the personification of the entire conflict.

Yes, because Sith isn't uttered in the original movies