Would Disney Ever Remake 'A New Hope’?

Star Wars

May 2

We are entering an era of reboots, remakes, and sequels. Major Hollywood studios are constantly remaking classics not just from novels or comics, but now outright remaking movies that had originally been released less than a decade ago. Many would argue that originality in Hollywood is truly dead and that the studios are just cashing in on nostalgia. Disney has done this several times to their animated classics, turning them into live-action remakes to cash in on that nostalgia for the animated version of the film. At least with the transition from animation to live-action the medium of the presentation was changing. However, they have yet to do this with something outside their animated line of movies, but does that mean they will? Could Disney decide to do this with one of their other properties, like say Star Wars, or more specifically the first Star Wars film, A New Hope?

The biggest reason to ask this question about Star Wars is simply that the original creator George Lucas sold it in 2012 to Disney who now can legally do with the property whatever they want. When Lucas was in charge the chances of the original Star Wars film being remade were slim to none since it did not seem he was interested in remaking his own work. For the most part, George would just tweak his original films, hence the Special Edition releases in 1997. However, now that the destiny of Star Wars is no longer in George’s hands, anything could happen with the franchise, including a complete remake of the original 1977 film.

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Now, why would Disney want to remake the original trilogy is the question many fans of the property would ask themselves if told this idea. Sadly, most of the time it’s a mix of nostalgia and hopes for a quick and easy cash grab. While selling it as a brand-new take on the story, this normally ends up with unnecessary changes to the source material. As stated earlier Disney in the past has remade several of its classic animated movies because they feel a need to update them for modern audiences which makes sense. With so many original properties under their belt, it wouldn’t be that crazy to think they’d see A New Hope, a film made in 1977, and think a modern remake could easily make them some quick money.

That doesn’t mean changes can’t be bad, but most of the time, they don’t come from truly artistic places. There is a reason why not every film in history is remade, you can only capture lightning in a bottle once, and the original Star Wars is very much a prime example of that. Though it is not impossible to remake something and make it better, there has to be artistic intent behind it and sadly when it comes to many big corporations this tends to not be the case.

Some artists can come in and want to remake the original Star Wars with a new vision, but it would be very difficult to pull off in this modern Hollywood environment. However, if one considers Star Wars to be modern mythology, then the idea of remaking or retelling A New Hope is not unheard of, for after all, haven’t humans retold the stories of ancient mythology over and over again in our history several times over?

Modern Mythology

Star Wars has been called modern mythology because it is a universal story; anyone can look at the tale of Luke Skywalker and take a different meaning from it. There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to tell a new version of a Star Wars story, there isn’t even anything wrong with wanting to retell A New Hope. If a brand new author with a vision unique to the source material wants to come in and retell this epic tale with a unique twist and their own life experience influencing the narrative, then that is all well and good. After all, when George Lucas wrote A New Hope, he too was bringing his own unique life experiences into the story although it must be pointed out that this was his story.

The original A New Hope is a personal story written by George Lucas and a universal one. While writing, George very much leaned heavily on the iconic storytelling myths of his time and the Hero Journey archetype. Perhaps someone with a different life experience can take that universal story and make it their own even if they are using the same characters. Luke Skywalker is a character, like Batman or Superman, who is iconic and eternal. Their journey and story could probably be retold over and over again. Thus, they should be allowed to be used by any author to tell a story or perhaps even retell it to reflect their unique vision of the story.

If Disney ever decides to remake A New Hope, many fans will probably not kindly accept the announcement regardless of the studio's intent. Something too precious being remade regardless of the remake's quality will always have its detractors for some will always see the original version of a film as the best one for that is the one they grew up with. The key here though is whether that is being done by someone with a love for the text and a unique perspective, or just to sell tickets and make a profit for whoever owns the right to make it.

In the end, Disney is the one who owns Star Wars now, and it is their decision whether or not to remake it, so in some cases, the question is not really how they will remake it, but more if/when they would. As stated previously we are in an era of reboots and remakes, and if the trend continues, then Star Wars could be affected no matter how much we do or do not want it to happen. Disney, however, is well aware of how fickle the Star Wars fan base can be and would probably regard a remake of A New Hope as a very high-risk project.

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