Talking About 'Star Wars': If the Star Wars series was remastered with every lightsaber choreography redesigned and dialogues given more attention, would it be profitable for the company making it?

If the Star Wars series was remastered with every lightsaber choreography redesigned and dialogues given more attention, would it be profitable for the company making it?

What? Hell, no!

First of all, what you’re suggesting is not technically a remastering. What you are really saying here is Why doesn’t Lucasfilm simply remake the entire pre-2015 Star Wars series with new choreography and improved dialogue.

Why on Earth would you suggest such a thing?

I mean, just because a technically adept fan made his own version of Star Wars Scene 38 with computer animation software to make the iconic lightsaber duel between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader more dynamic, and just because fans raised on video games and the faster, more intense lightsaber fights of the Prequels think it’s amazeballs, it does not mean that the vast majority of Star Wars fans want a remake that “improves” the lightsaber duels or the dialogue of the Classic Star Wars Trilogy and the Prequels.

This would not go over well with Star Wars fans, a large number of whom are upset over changes made by the only person who could legally do so, franchise creator George Lucas.

Since 1997, when Lucas “remastered” the Original Trilogy for the 20th Anniversary Special Edition re-release, the hue and cry from certain quarters in Star Wars fandom have not been “Make even more changes!” but rather “We want cleaned-up versions of the original theatrical release editions!” (No “mattes” that show up on screen due to the nature of composite shots is the biggest thing they want Lucasfilm to get rid of.)

Secondly, to redo the lightsaber fights to make them more visually exciting, as in the infamous Star Wars SC 38 video, is to tamper with someone else’s artistic vision. George Lucas wrote and directed Star Wars; the fans did not. And if Lucas says that Kenobi and Vader fought that way because they were not the young Jedi Knights they once were, fans should respect that.

To me, that video is an insult to someone else’s creation. If I were to make an analogy, Star Wars SC 38 is like if someone went to Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and Photoshopped it so that the lady with the mystic smile looked like Megan Fox or whoever is the Hot Chick of the Day.

Also, how do you remaster the dialogue? You’d have to rewrite the entirety of the six movies, from beginning to end, plus you would need to recast every role while you are at it.

Imagine how well most Star Wars fans will take that.

(Hint: Not. Well. At. All.)

As for how profitable such a dubious project would be for Lucasfilm?

Not very. The existing movies - warts and all - have been highly successful, but most of their earnings as blockbusters were made when they were in their original, unretouched by Lucas versions. The Special Editions added extra income to the total box office gross of the Classic Trilogy, but the theatrical runs were short - only a month or so for each Episode, if I recall correctly. And they were controversial and even divisive, even though George “the Maker” Lucas was responsible for the changes.

Considering how beloved many of the pre-2012 Star Wars films are, if anyone attempted to remake Episodes I-VI a la Star Wars 38C, they would have a major disaster - worse than Solo: A Star Wars Story’s underperformance - on their hands