The original emperor actor was a woman - Marjorie Eaton, while the voiceover was done by Clive Revill, who went in to do VO in a few star wars games.

Ian McDermott being added to Empire was done LONG before Disney acquired the franchise. It was a change Lucas himself made for continuity reasons

The 1980 Emperor looks like if the more recent one stuck his head in a bee hive

as a kid I was confused because I noticed a lot of new stuff when I watched the films again. It totally makes sense now because I definitely watched the original version when I first watched them

Why do you call it "Disney version"? Lucas's 2004 modification has nothing to do with Disney.

The no re-edits is what I most like.

I still have my VHS tapes of the original trilogy-been waiting for its release on DVD for time time now.

The reason Disney doesn't release them is because they are legally bound not to. It was part of the contract with Lucas when they bought Lucasfilm. It's Lucas who is holding these back, not Disney.

Had checked a month ago but thanks for update 4k80 . I watch 4k77 & 4k83 regularly. Have the old vhs, dvd & BR & 4K releases but the original takes me back to initial shows back in May 1977😊😊😊

I look forward to "watching it at my friend's house" after 4K77 and 83. I've got to say that 4K77 with both DNR and without is gorgeous.

4K80 is a different experience. It does feel like you've punched May 6 1980 into your BTTF DeLorean to see the original release.

I've always been worried that Lucas destroyed the original prints. Kind of like he did with all existing prints and copies of the Holiday Special. When he dislikes something he can go full armeggedon on it.

I had been keeping up with the 4K80 beta releases but life happens and I didn't know 4K80 1.0 had been released. Thank you!

I saw Empire when it came out, and that's the version I remember and love best. I look forward to this!

This stuff is wild. I really appreciate you making this. :D

Thank you so much for this info! Just got a new 2K curved monitor and looking forward to what this will look like on it!

Thank you for this - I'm getting all 3 now!

All I can say is, awesome! Thanks for your review!

Thank you so much for alerting me to the existence of these fan restorations (preservations?). Have a great weekend

Finally all 3. History has been preserved. The people have won.

Disney would make a killing if they released the Star Wars theatrical cut on 5/25/27. I know they won't though as George has stated, "sorry if you fell in love with an incomplete film". He said going forward the so called Special Editions, are the official versions of all 3 films now. I own the Grindhouse versions which I love the most. Has all of the grain and imperfections since they are actually scanned from original 35mm prints.

Why wouldn’t you upload this in 4K?!

Got my copy of 4K80. Can't wait to watch it. Loved the project 4k versions of Star Wars and RotJ.

The original Emperor was fkd up looking lol

Thanks for the info. I just got 77 and 83, but 80 wasn't out, but must have come out a few weeks after I got the first two, and I had no idea!!

The new Emperor was put in before Disney. I think for the first Blu release.

Great video man, but there's just a problem with the thumbnail. Ian McDiarmid wasn't added to ESB in the Disney version, that change was in the 2004 dvd. Long before Disney purchased Lucasfilm

May the force be with you.

These are great. But 35mm is equivalent closer to 6.5 to 8K. Though those file sizes would be massive.

George Lucas’ legacy is that of a gatekeeper who has forced fans of his series to take matters into their own hands so that they can watch the version of the films that they want to watch. His attitude towards the OT has really made me dislike him.

Thanks for letting me know. I've been hovering around the Star Wars Trilogy forums since they only had Star Wars 4K77, yearning to complete the trilogy. The wait between SW and ROTJ wasn't very long, but the wait for TESB... I never thought I'd live to see the day. Any change to a film that you've seen hundreds of times before they start changing it hits like a commercial break, draws you out of the experience. I was most annoyed by changes to The Empire Strikes Back over any of the films, because I always thought that film was perfect. The Wampa scene was made less scary (almost amusing actually), shots flying around the exterior of Cloud City didn't fit stylistically into the rest of film, and the apparent need to show Vader landing on the Star Destroyer screws with the pace of the film.

I just got the 2006 release set, and the nostalgia was real

a 480p dvd will always look better than a compressed and artifacted stream imho

does it have original audio? ie mono/stereo or is it surround sound?

So how do I get an invitation code to the forum?

Wanting to remove film grain is way worse sin than adding cgi.

"You should own this film legally before you download this, or it could be considered piracy." OH NO! Anyway...

Its 2024 and they still didn't officially release the original versions of the trilogy. I still have my tv vhs recordings from the early '90s but Disney needs to release them if they want to make some easy money.

I literally own Empire Strikes Back like 10 times VHS, DVDs, and Blueray

Don’t blame Disney for the retcon stuff. That was all George Lucas. Disney had nothing to do with any of that.

All special edition changes aside. I agree with you, I don’t know who in quality control thought it was a good idea to add a blue overlay in ANH, ESB and ROTJ (in the 2004/2011 versions). It makes the colors look completely washed out. Thankfully someone in quality control realized their mistake and erased that overlay and in the current 2019 versions, the colors look so much more vibrant.

I don't mind the Special Editions as much (other than Han shooting first which is the only change that actually changes the story) but I'm super glad these exist. In my perfect world, we'd get an OT set like the Blade Runner Final Cut release that had 5 versions of the film including the final cut itself. I think trying to pretend the originals never existed is a bit too much like rewriting history; those movies are an important achievement in the history of film, and should be evaluated as such in their original state. That being said, what's with the "Original vs Disney" thing on the thumbnail? Clickbait much? Disney gets enough hate from SW fans (a lot deserved, a lot not) without getting blamed for something that has nothing to do with them. "Original vs SE" would have been fine. This is George's issue, and his alone. Which, well, they're his films... it'd be much worse IMHO if Disney *had* been the ones to make the changes and suppressed the unaltered versions. Not that I agree with Lucas doing it either.

Why does the thumbnail say that the Special Edition is the "Disney Version"?

Thank you very much.

But where can i find 4k copies of the television premiers with commercial breaks that i grew up with on VHS?

Keep the true OT alive! Thanks for this.

I do not see a way to download and watch this on the website from the link you provided...

This looks amazing! Sorry to spam but would you be up for collaborating?

How much difference between this & Harmy's Despecialized Edition is it? I have each if the 1st 3 in that format.

My preference is the D+77, 80, and 83 hybrid versions. It takes the 4K blu-rays and replaces all the cg additions with footage from the original film prints and color corrects them. You get less grain, higher fine detail, accurate colors, theatrical audio, and keeps the actual good fixes from the blu-rays that don't change anything. These are the best current option imo if you're not a total purist.

More accurate thumbnail would be, "Theatrical vs. Mid-Life Crisis Lucas Version". Disney was not involved with any of these changes, these were all Lucas 100%. South Park made fun of a lot of the early changes back in 2002 with episode Free Hat lmao. George kept doing these asinine changes until he sold Star Wars to Disney.

Any invite codes? One in the description doesn't work

Good info, thanks.

In an ideal world, I would put out a single Special Edition Bluray with ALL versions of each of the films available on it, much like was done with ''Blade Runner''. In fact, I would do this with EVERY film in history that has been retouched. The original versions and the altered versions in the same boxes. This allows people to decide what they want to watch and it also prevents personal restoration by well-meaning but non-expert fans. While at it, I would do the same thing for ALL black and white films: a Bluray Special Edition of all the old non-color films with their black and white version and their colored version. With A.I., it shouldn't be that complicated now. Imagine all these old cinematic treasures that would be more appealing to everyone! And for those who are purists, well they just have to stick to the original version and be happy. In the case of Star Wars, Blade Runner, E.T. or other altered projects, there's also something fun about comparing different versions of the same film, if only to explore an author's creative vision as long as we're interested, of course. No matter if these new versions are spoiled or not, the originals would still be there.

I was on mushrooms one time and thought it'd be fun to rewatch A New Hope for some comfy nostalgia. Unfortunately for me it was riddled with the special edition alterations and it totally sent me into a bad trip. This and the de-specialization editions are godsends.

Lucas did this because he wanted the og movies to be on par with the prequels so they wouldn't look out of place and to re add removed content like jabba the Hutt in the 4th movie

I still have my special edition VHS

The Emperor scene is the one change I’m glad George Lucas made

replacing the emperors hologram was one of the few things George did right with the special eds

Any ideas on 4K77, 80, and 83 available online?

I FCKIN LOVE FILM GRAIN

I'll be honest, I was happy to see that we finally had the Emperor we all know added into Empire Strikes Back as the character was originally played by a woman with male voice. However, I think Disney could have done a better job as it did look out of place.

Wait why would we want the film grain removed?

I own several versions of VHS box-sets, I guess I'm legally covered. And I will be recording those projects on VHS as well, not for sale obviosuly.

As an indie filmmaker, those file sizes seem totally wrong. The 4k seems right but there's no reason why a 1080 file should only be like 15gb smaller. The resolution is substantially smaller and so the file should be too. Curious how they exported this.

The Emperor change was a must. It made no sense to be an alien in ESB and then a total different guy in ROTJ. Keeping that is puritanism and not based on what is good.

Did the VHS set of the original trilogy use the theatrical versions of the films? Those were the ones i watched as a kid in the 2000’s but i don’t remember the emperor looking different lol.

Your video poped up in my feed so thanks to you i managed to get all 3 in 4k, huge amaount of space, almost 300 GB

What do you think about 4K83 2.0?

The vocal fry is strong with this one

I think the change was understandable, especially considering that Ian McDiarmid became the face of the Emperor in Return of the Jedi along with the prequel trilogy. I am sure Lucas had to update the storyline has as time went by, especially when doing the prquel trilogy along woth tbe clone wars series. Also the Star Wars saga got even more complex after Disney took over. Some changes were probably needed as the story evolved, such as revising Palpatine's image In Empire Strikes back

"Some may not like grain"? What a strange thing to say...

if only they'd be giving us the theatrical cuts for this re-release at the theaters this upcoming May 4th. I wish they would do theatrical re-releases of at least the original episodes 4-7 every 10 years, as that would be really cool.

Ah, it's encouraging to hear that good quality rips can still be made, I had heard it was impossible since the original prints were destroyed by George Lucas, and he had a contract with FOX stating that any remaining reels of film were to be tracked down and destroyed as well. I actually spent quite a bit of money tracking down dvd copies of the special edition that had the original theatrical version as bonus features, my THX VHS Copies are probably no good anymore and I don't have a working VCR anymore anyway. I was considering trying to buy one of the laserdisk prints, but I kind of don't want to buy a laserdisk projector just to watch three movies.

Does the Return of the Jedi inculde the extended pit scenes with Luke holding onto the pit gate.

I think it's good that the theatrical version of ESB is available to watch, however unlike a new hope, Empire's newer versions are just objectively better. New Wampa scenes, updated emperor scene (the original one looks awful) as well as windows in cloud city to make it feel more alive. The newer versions also have a lot better color (yes, snow can look blue. That isn't unrealistic)

I think Empire was the best of the updated Original Trilogy. Featuring the actual Emporer makes more sense, the cave monster works better, Cloud City looks better aswell. It's not like the other two where the extra stuff detracts from the film.

ahhh the Clive Revill Emperor.

Fantastic transfer, just got done watching it today, couldn’t be more happier. Although, I do question why Vader’s lightsaber has a pinkish look to it? Yes I understand this print is pretty beat up, but still, why is it pink instead of Red? I’m not being rude or anything, I just want to know why it looks pink instead of Red. But to be fair, when Lucusfilm remastered the print in 1993 for the Definitive Edition on Laserdisc (which was done in order to not only cash in on the last release of the original theatrical versions on home media, but to be used for the 97 Special Edition edits) Vader’s lightsaber has a pink look to it. So I don’t know if Vader’s lightsaber looked like that in the 1980 theatrical print or not. Just curious.

Does any other universe like harry potter or LOTR have altered versions? Or is it only star wars that has done these kind of changes?

So how can we get these on blu ray??

I own the trilogy on vhs does that count?

Maybe I’m on the wrong side of the argument, but I prefer the special editions. I confess that I grew up with the changed versions, but I prefer them a little more. Little things like deleted scenes, digitally enhanced shots, the Stormtrooper making a noise when he bumps his head, and Palpatine in Empire played by Ian MacDiarmid. It adds an extra degree of continuity and I like them more as an overall package.

Any plans for them to make a physical release?

58GB? That's insane. 😂 I have Harmy's Despecialized versions. They're as they were seen in cinemas. I hate the dialogue changes in Empire, which is the best movie in the franchise for sure.

I recently watched a despecialized edition it was titled Despecialized Edition 2.0. a version which I hadn't seen in almost 30 years since watching my betamax tapes. Does anyone know how similar the version I saw is to this project 4k80 version?

I have seen 4k77 and 4k83 with no DNR in 1080p and even that is a HUGE upgrade from the laserdisc and VHS originals. I used to have captures of the laserdisc releases that I would watch over anything, the original laserdisc was actually better than the dvd release. The remasters stuff is just wrong. Still havent seen 4k80 yet, but i will soon.

It's so damn hard to get your hand on it.

Grain is integral to how it should be watched.

What about the how ?

Are we sure that the colours haven't faded in the years since?

When using a VPN is it best to set it to a certain country?

I hope they do this for the prequels

Maclunky!

i have the original trilogy on laser disc. you really had to like something to buy the LD versions... they were well over $150 for each film.

I wonder if Disney has the original movies at all. No one knows what George Lucas put in that contract.

Great that people are doing this. So much better before Lucas started fiddling with the masterpieces

They should do a "De-make" of the prequel trilogy and use CG to remove effeccts and match the old colors.

Not long ago I bought a recent Blade Runner re-release. It's teal and orange now. Completely different colors. Also much darker too. I returned it. I hope more movies will get the same love these star wars re-releases got.

Where can I buy them