‘Star Wars’ First-Ever IMAX Release Set for 50th Anniversary Celebration

Few franchises have influenced modern cinema like ‘Star Wars’, yet astonishingly, in nearly fifty years of theatrical success, the film that ignited it all has never been shown on IMAX screens. This significant gap in the franchise’s history is about to be filled as Lucasfilm prepares for one of its most ambitious anniversary celebrations.

This milestone is part of a larger initiative linked to the franchise’s landmark 50th anniversary, with 2027 poised to be a particularly momentous year for the galaxy far, far away. Lucasfilm has been steadily building towards this celebration for months, and the studio has now confirmed its plans to commemorate the occasion on the largest screens available.

According to a new announcement, both the original 1977 ‘Star Wars’, later retitled ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’, and the forthcoming ‘Star Wars: Starfighter’ will be released in IMAX 70mm film for the first time in franchise history. The original film’s restored 50th anniversary re-release is set to hit theaters on February 19, 2027, marking the very first time the movie has ever screened in IMAX, in either digital or film format, since its original 1977 debut.

This re-release will be showcased in select IMAX 70mm film locations, along with a broader run in standard theaters for a limited engagement. Given how many times ‘Star Wars’ has returned to theaters over the decades, securing its first-ever IMAX presentation is a genuinely rare milestone for a film that has already been re-released more times than almost any other title in franchise history.

‘Star Wars: Starfighter’ will follow a few months later, arriving on May 28, 2027, perfectly timed to coincide with the exact 50th anniversary weekend of the original film’s 1977 premiere. Unlike the classic re-release, ‘Starfighter’ was filmed using IMAX-certified cameras from the outset, with the footage subsequently converted into IMAX 70mm film prints for release in select theaters equipped to showcase it.

This IMAX-native production approach places ‘Starfighter’ alongside a growing trend of blockbusters embracing large-format filmmaking as a genuine creative choice rather than merely a marketing strategy. Directed by Shawn Levy and featuring Ryan Gosling as a skilled space pilot, the film is positioned as a high-stakes showcase for the format, with early buzz indicating a strong emphasis on sweeping aerial combat sequences designed specifically for IMAX’s expanded screen ratio.

The timing also reflects broader momentum within the IMAX 70mm space, largely fueled by the massive success of Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ this year. That film has become the highest-grossing IMAX release of all time, raking in over $450 million globally, while its 70mm screenings alone have generated a record $78 million at the worldwide box office, often selling out theaters for weeks at a time.

Both ‘Star Wars’ releases are part of Lucasfilm’s larger yearlong 50th anniversary celebration, which also includes ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ hitting theaters earlier in 2026 as the franchise’s first theatrical release since 2019’s ‘The Rise of Skywalker’. Together, these announcements suggest Disney and Lucasfilm are treating 2027 as a genuine turning point for how the franchise engages with premium theatrical formats moving forward.

For longtime fans who have spent decades watching ‘Star Wars’ return to theaters in countless different cuts and formats, finally experiencing the original film on an IMAX screen represents something genuinely new after fifty years.

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments.