Line #24 KeepCirculatingTheTapes/StarWars


1	Considering its status as a LongRunner franchise, ''Franchise/StarWars'' has seen numerous entries and works fall out of circulation and remain lost for years. Luckily, the franchise retains a very passionate fan community that works to preserve many of the examples listed below:
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7	[[folder:Film]]
8	* The original theatrical cuts of the ''Star Wars Trilogy'' have flirted with this on many occasions. For a period of time between 1997 and 2006, VHS and DVD sets of the [[GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion "Special Edition"]] trilogy were the only official releases on the market (with the 1995 "Faces" VHS and [=LaserDisc=] set proudly boasting that it was the last release for the original films). The theatrical cuts came back into circulation for a limited time in 2006 as part of a (barely-advertised) set, which included a non-anamorphic [=LaserDisc=] port thrown in with the Special Edition cuts. The release of the Complete Saga Blu-ray boxset has also knocked those sets out of circulation, so the theatrical cuts are once again unavailable unless you resort to the (highly active) [[FanEdit fan community]]. The "official" explanation for the originals' unavailability (including from Creator/GeorgeLucas himself) is that they had deteriorated in the intervening years, but many fans called out this sentiment (particularly because it makes Lucas himself out to be a fool who never safeguarded the quality of culturally-significant science-fiction films), or claim that the original negatives were irrevocably altered to create the Special Edition. Many filmmakers and editors (including film restoration expert Robert Harris) have offered to restore the negatives for free, and the U.S. Library of Congress does have an unaltered original print of [[Film/ANewHope the original film]] in its archives (though not provided to them by Lucas, who wanted to give them a "Special Edition" print).
9	** Conversely, the Special Editions of the original trilogy (that is, the version that Lucas expressly said was the "definitive" edition of his work) have been substantially changed over the years, with the "original" version of the Special Edition no longer being in circulation. Most fans are unaware that there are technically three distinct "Special Editions" -- the 1997 theatrical[=/=]VHS[=/=]laserdisc release, the 2004 DVD release and the 2011 Blu-Ray release, the latter of two have distinct sets of changes between them, with lines, CGI and even some scenes being changed according to Lucas' whim in that era. The 4K cuts approved by Disney have ''even more'' changes, including significant recomposited shots, a handful of changed lines (including a new shot of Greedo unveiling himself to Han in ''New Hope'') and shots that were expressly requested by Lucas before the franchise's sale in 2012.
10	* The original theatrical cut of ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'' has also never been re-released past its initial release on VHS and (in Japan, at the tailend of the format) laserdisc. The DVD edition would extend the film's length by 3 minutes, re-editing portions of the Podrace and extending the Coruscant air taxi scene substantially. The 2001 DVD release (see Rescued Works, below, for information on ''The Beginning'' documentary included in this edition) was subsequently superceded by the 2011 Blu-Ray edition, which re-edited all shots of Yoda (performed by Creator/FrankOz using a puppet) to a fully-digital version to match his appearance in later Prequel installments.
11	* During the production of ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' in the UK (back when it was still going to be called ''Revenge of the Jedi''), assistant director David Tomblin made a promotional short film starring Creator/WarwickDavis as himself called ''Return of the Ewok''. It starts as a light-hearted comedy about Warwick becoming a professional actor and then turns into a weird metafictional piece about Warwick becoming an actual Ewok and meeting the characters from the movie. While George Lucas was at first supportive of this venture, he had to cut funding for the short before Tomblin could complete the final edit or pay the licensing fee to use the Music/{{Supertramp}} song "Take The Long Way Home", and the short's release was cancelled and the original camera negatives were lost. But Tomblin made a VHS copy for Davis as a gift after filming wrapped on the movie, and he subsequently donated it to the Lucasfilm archives so it could be shown at fan conventions. Some clips were used as part of DVD and Blu-Ray bonus content [[note]] In particular, the scene of Boba Fett chasing Warwick in his Ewok costume was put in the blooper reel for ''Return of the Jedi'', and a high quality clip of the ending scene where Warwick's parents find him on the Endor set was put into the "Warwick and Sons" featurette for ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' [[/note]], and a 4 minute condensed version was available as part of the below mentioned ''Hyperspace'' online fanclub. A reconstruction of the film by Garret Gilchrist (famous for the ''Re-Cobbled Cut'' of ''WesternAnimation/TheThiefAndTheCobbler''), made using the Hyperspace edit and a bootleg recording of a Star Wars Celebration convention screening, can be found on Platform/YouTube.
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14	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
15	* ''Film/TheStarWarsHolidaySpecial'' is the most famous example of this, and quite possibly the most notorious bootleg ever circulated. It was the first ''Star Wars'' story of any kind to be filmed after ''Film/ANewHope'' and was heavily promoted at the time, but it was shown only once on TV in the U.S. in November 1978 and never saw the light of day again. This is because people realized it was terrible, and it became hated by practically everyone associated with it (the only ones who don't care aren't involved with ''Star Wars'' in any other capacity, like Creator/BeaArthur). Creator/GeorgeLucas himself has made it a mission to [[BuryYourArt never reair nor officially release the special]] because of his personal disgust with it. But StreisandEffect kicked in, and the show's heavy advance promotion meant that a lot of people had recorded the show on their VCR, so people were trading tapes of it to see exactly what it was that everyone said was so terrible. These days, you can easily find it on the Internet. Interestingly, because the only copies are based on TV airings, they include the ''ads'' as well, which were not exactly the same across the country and have created "variant" recordings; the ads themselves can also be {{Memetic\|Mutation}}.[[note]]By way of example, one of the most memetic, a preview of a news story going "fighting the frizzies, [[FilmAtEleven tonight at 11]]", was for the local CBS station in New York, which happened to provide the most widely circulated version. This is the version that appears as the framework for the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' ChristmasEpisode "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics".[[/note]] Creator/{{Lucasfilm}} has ''slowly'' acknowledged the interest in the special -- they've intermittently released merchandise relating to it, and a couple of times have even included the special's cartoon segment (considered not as bad as the rest, in part because it's the first appearance of [[EnsembleDarkhorse Boba Fett]] and thus kind of a mini-preview of ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'') as an EasterEgg on the ''Empire Strikes Back'' UHD and as a standalone short (under the name "The Story of the Faithful Wookiee") on Disney+ -- but they've been very clear that there is not going to be an official release of the entire special any time soon. Podcast/{{Rifftrax}}, for what it's worth, has ''sold'' a video-on-demand version of their riff on the special for years, and they've never been bothered about it by either Creator/{{Lucasfilm}} or Creator/{{Disney}}. To date, the only officially-released copy of the special in its entirety was especially made by George Lucas for Creator/CarrieFisher at her explicit request, as payment for her providing DVD commentary for the original trilogy of films. [[TheThingThatWouldNotLeave She used it to scare off party guests who were overstaying their welcome]]; it is unknown what became of her copy after her death.[[note]]Presumably it would have passed on to her sole beneficiary, Creator/BillieLourd, but nobody has ever worked up the nerve to ask her if she still has it.[[/note]]
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18	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
19	* This would be averted for some of the Kenner board games during 2019, when the likes of ''Escape From the Death Star'' and ''Empire Strikes Back: Hoth Ice Planet Adventure Game'' were available at Target as part of the Star Wars "Retro" collection. These re-issues can be identified at a glance by the bonus action figures that come with them.
20	* ''TabletopGame/StarWarsD20'' RPG articles and modules posted on the internet by publisher Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast were taken offline by the company when the license expired in May of 2010. They're still out there, kept online by fans who saved them before they were taken down.
21	** Fans continue to circulate the [[TabletopGame/StarWarsD6 old West End Games versions]] of the RPG as well.
22	** Fantasy Flight Games released in 2018 a replica set of the two core rulebooks to celebrate the game's 30th anniversary.
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25	[[folder:Video Games]]
26	* Free Radical's ''VideoGame/StarWarsBattlefront III'', which was subject to an infamous TroubledProduction that resulted in the franchise being [[VideoGame/StarWarsBattlefront2015 rebooted]] by Creator/ElectronicArts. Having reportedly been "99% finished", the project was beset with financial delays, [[ScheduleSlip scheduling problems]] and friction with Creator/LucasArts executives before the project was scrapped in 2009. While some of the cutscenes and content from the scrapped game made its way into the Platform/PlayStationPortable title ''Battlefront: Elite Squadron'' (itself an example of this trope), the original title has never seen proper release, despite a [[https://kotaku.com/star-wars-battlefront-iii-prototype-apparently-leaks-1754127977 playable prototype making its way online in 2016]]. Even now, the only way to play said prototype is to have an [=XBox=] 360 development kit, as the game refuses to load on regular versions of the console, and Lucasfilm has seen fit to pull down any links to copies of the prototype circulating around the web.
27	* Several interactive games related to the films, including ''Behind the Magic'' (an encyclopedia that was notable for featuring some of the earliest deleted scenes to see release in public) and ''Making Magic'' (a behind-the-scenes look at how the Special Edition Trilogy releases were created) became this, with no word on their status since they were released in TheNineties.
28	* ''Videogame/RogueSquadron'' was this until a remastered re-release in 2015, though spiritual sequel ''Battle for Naboo'' is still restricted to old copies (although fans finally managed to work out the problems that prevented proper emulation of the Nintendo 64 version), and proper sequels ''Rogue Leader'' and ''Rebel Strike'' are only legally available through Platform/GameCube used copies (there is an unreleased remaster of the whole trilogy which Factor 5 managed to complete before being sunk by bankruptcy and lawsuits; it just doesn't seem the current licensor-only version of Creator/LucasArts is interested in doing anything with it).
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31	[[folder:Web Original]]
32	* The regular and "Hyperspace" paid content on the official ''Star Wars'' website. Created in 2003, Hyperspace was the only way to get exclusive — ''really exclusive'' — content like video diaries, insider information on the prequels, an unfinished workprint scene from ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'', concept art, exclusive commentaries for the original films and more. However, when the site switched over to a new redesign, all of that content wasn't converted into the site's new Flash format and subsequently vanished into the ether. Short of getting said exclusive content from unofficial fan preservations, there's currently no official way to obtain any of this material. Most of the open content is lost as well. The ''Star Wars'' official forums were also closed on June 6, 2011, just after the announcement of the "Complete Saga" Blu-ray boxset. Given how more than ten years of content (and interviews with notable Lucasfilm authors and guests) were available on that forum, screenshots of topics and forum posts continue to circulate amongst diehard fans. When Disney redesigned [=StarWars.com=] again, any content that was on the site prior to July 2012 was lost, and is only accessible through the Internet Archive.
33	** This includes most of the ''WebComic/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' webcomics (some were fortunate to have been saved elsewhere by fans, but ''Act on Instinct'' and ''The Valsedian Operation'' are gone).
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36	[[folder:Western Animation]]
37	* ''Star Wars: Detours'' is an example of this occurring to an ''entire series''. Inspired by the ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken: Star Wars'' specials, thirty-nine six-minute episodes of the animated series were produced, which were heavily inspired by the latter series and had several members of the creative team behind them. Despite appearing to fanfare at Celebration 2012, the series was eventually shelved after Disney bought Lucasfilm, and next-to-nothing has been heard about it since. The only things that can be found are the trailer and a leaked copy of one of the shorts, but no other information is available regarding the rest of the series. [[https://ew.com/tv/star-wars-detours-disney-lucasfilm-seth-green/ According to]] Creator/SethGreen, there has been no interest in releasing the show from Lucasfilm, either because it doesn't fit into the new canon established by the Sequel Trilogy or it simply doesn't have enough importance to air on Disney+.
38	* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'':
39	** The "Decoded" versions of episodes in the first season — re-airings that had some lore annotations by the Lucasfilm Animation team to go along with them — only aired once on TV and on the official ''Star Wars'' website before the premiere of the second season. Most of the episodes have been lost over time, but a [[https://swreference.wordpress.com/2019/01/16/star-wars-the-clone-wars-decoded/ blog on Wordpress]] as well as some parts of Wookieepedia have kept records of some of the lore drops.
40	** With the release of the Final Season, "The Clone Wars Legacy" content (episodes that have been released as online animatics or in [[ComicBook/DarthMaulSonOfDathomir different]] [[Literature/DarkDisciple mediums]] as a result of the series' original cancellation) has been taken down from the official Star Wars website and [=YouTube=] channel. While this is understandable for the Bad Batch episodes (which were released in completed form as part of the Final Season, albeit with slight story and dialogue differences from the originals), the Crystal Crisis on Utapau animatics have fallen out of official circulation, meaning the only places you can find those episodes are The Lost Missions Blu-ray release (and only on Blu-ray, as the DVD release never got them) or other [=YouTube=] channels if you want to watch them (and [=YouTube=] is the ''only'' option if you want to see [[WhatCouldHaveBeen what's changed between the original and finished versions of the Bad Batch episodes]]).
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43	[[folder:Rescued Works]]
44	* A documentary created for ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' by French filmmaker Michel Parbot (who did camera work for a similar documentary, ''SP/FX: Empire Strikes Back'') was thought to be lost for decades after its initial airing on French television. Comprised of off-the-cuff interviews, behind-the-scenes clips and on-set[=/=]rehearsal footage, the documentary was considered to be a "holy grail" for diehard fans for years, but rights issues[[note]]supposedly between producer Gary Kurtz and Lucasfilm — Kurtz kept a personal copy in his vault for decades, and at least one fan was barred from circulating it digitally, but was allowed to play it at conventions[[/note]] largely kept it out of the public eye. After a partial release in 2008 (comprising 26 minutes of the documentary), the full version of the documentary was finally released in September 2018, after fan editor Adywan was able to secure a lower-generation copy from a French television airing.
45	* A [=LaserDisc=] used to test Pioneer's [=EditDroid=] editing system (similar to Creator/{{Adobe}} programs like Premiere) used a half-hour worth of unused and alternate takes of footage from ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' (of Luke speaking with Yoda on Dagobah), and was demoed at conventions in 1984. However, the disc containing said footage disappeared into the ether and was thought lost for good... [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz56q4t6fek until 2013]], when the same [=LaserDisc=] came up for auction on [=eBay=]. An enterprising fan bought the [=LaserDisc=] for an exorbitant price, collated the clips together and released it to the public.
46	* Several documentaries, including the UK television special ''Clapperboard: The Empire Strikes Back'' and the PBS pledge drive special ''From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga'', were unaccounted for years after their appearances on early VHS boxsets related to the franchise. They were later released in either the ''Complete Saga'' Blu-Ray boxset or the ''Star Wars'' [=YouTube=] channel.
47	* The Creator/GeorgeLucas interviews with Leonard Maltin, created as part of a tie-in with the aforementioned "Faces" VHS set and released in the mid-90s, have never been re-released since their original appearances. The official ''Star Wars'' [=YouTube=] channel uploaded the complete interviews, but they are all clearly taken from the VHS tapes.
48	* Both ''The Beginning'' (a documentary about ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'') and ''Film/EmpireOfDreams'' (a feature-length documentary about the franchise and its influences in popular culture) appeared on early-[=2000s=] DVD releases, but haven't been included on any Blu-Ray or next-gen media sets, which left their legality in doubt. Fortunately, the official Star Wars channel on Website/YouTube released ''Empire of Dreams'' in 2013 and ''The Beginning'' in 2014. ''Empire Of Dreams'' was later added to Disney+.
49	* ''Film/TheStarWarsHolidaySpecial'' is able to be legally[[note]]in that the special has been openly offered for sale for almost a decade and nobody at Lucasfilm or Disney has bothered to try to put a stop to it, which either means Rifftrax got a license to do it or nobody cares enough to call the lawyers out[[/note]] purchased as a VOD, so long as you don't mind that [[Podcast/{{Rifftrax}} Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett]] are making jokes over it... though most people would agree that this makes it so much better.
50	* The ''Franchise/StarWars'' animated canon from the 1980s, including ''WesternAnimation/{{Droids}}'' (and its follow-up special, ''The Great Heep'') and ''WesternAnimation/{{Ewoks}}'' (which lasted two seasons). The two series were released on DVD as part of an "Animated Adventures" series — the only problem? The releases are simply two sets of six episodes edited into mini-features — more than half the run of ''Droids'' is still unavailable, and more than an entire season of ''Ewoks'' is also unaccounted for. Even though the two series have both been referenced in various ''Star Wars''-related material over the years, neither have been released as a complete series. Lucasfilm has said a DVD release is "possible" — meaning you're better off scrounging for the old VHS releases of the series, which had all the episodes. The ''Ewoks'' cartoon (and the ''[[Film/StarWarsEwokAdventures Ewok Adventures]]'' movies) would eventually see a rerelease in April 2021 as part of the ''Star Wars'' Vintage Collection on Disney+, with the ''Droids'' cartoon being released on the platform in June of that year.
51	* With Warner's distribution contract with Lucasfilm expiring as a result of Disney's purchase of said company, the PilotMovie of ''Recap/{{Star Wars The Clone Wars\|Movie}}'' is completely out of print and both Blu-ray and DVD copies are considerably expensive to find. Not even digital outlets got any break from the contractual lapse. While Disney initially didn't appear to have any plans to re-release the PilotMovie, the rest of the show is still circulating and much easier to find, physically (until around 2019, when WB's rights to the series also expired) and digitally. The PilotMovie and the rest of the series were available on Creator/{{Netflix}} ([[NoExportForYou in certain markets]]) between March 2014 and April 2019, and were re-released on Creator/DisneyPlus in November 2019.
52	* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsCloneWars'' originally got its entire series released through two DVD volumes, both of which are now out of print and cost a pretty penny on [=eBay=]. Since Disney no longer considers the show canon and has placed it under ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'', it wouldn't see an official rerelease for years until April 2, 2021 as part of the Disney+ Star Wars "Vintage" bundle.
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Context KeepCirculatingTheTapes / StarWars