Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy was on hand for the opening night of the BFI Film on Film Festival, where she commented on the surprise discovery and presentation of the original first print of 1977’s Star Wars.
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Kennedy’s appearance at the festival also came as a surprise to those in attendance. However, speaking to The Independent, Kennedy said she wanted to show up to help “legitimize” the print being screened, as some fans had worried that this isn’t what George Lucas would have wanted, given his infamous dislike of the original cut of the movie.
“It’s incredible folklore,” Kennedy said. “Even when I came into the company, there was endless conversation about where everything was, and what was in fact the first print? And it’s quite remarkable, what you’re going to see is in fact the first print, and I’m not even sure there’s another one quite like it. It’s that rare. There’s so much tinkering that’s gone on over the years, and things that George [Lucas] decided, ‘I’m gonna change this, I’m gonna try that.’ And then, everybody kind of lost track of what it was.”
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Kennedy also said that, anyone who joins Lucasfilm to create a new Star Wars project are shown the 1977 classic because it remains “the gold standard” for the franchise and storytelling. “I would say this is the film everyone starts with when we start talking about story, George’s intent and what it is we’re trying to build off of.”
The print’s discovery came as a surprise, and quickly led to a stir amongst fans online. George Lucas infamously did not like the very first print of Star Wars (which would later be renamed to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope), and would tinker with it in the years after its release. Specifically, Lucas added the now infamous opening crawl, and changed the scene in the Mos Eisley cantina, making it so that bounty hunter Greedo shoots at Han Solo first, rather than vice versa.
