As we head towards Autumn at full pace it can only mean one thing? Christmas is near, anmd with Christmas 2025 on the horizon then so is the tenth anniversary of The Force Awakens.
In recent years, Lucasfilm have made a big deal of celebrating anniversaries. Return of the Jedi had its 40th in 2023, The Phantom Menace turned 25 years old in 2024 and this year, in a massive way, Revenge of the Sith marked two-decades of magic, which brings us to this coming December; The Force Awakens turns ten years old, but what will Lucasfilm do to celebrate?
The sequels, for various reasons that we all know, are still raw for so many and all eyes will now be trained to the future with The Mandalorian & Grogu hitting cinemas next May. Lucasfilm will probably want all focus to be on making that new venture a big success and that leaves The Force Awakens in a precarious position.
Episode VII turns ten on 18th December. I simply can’t see Lucasfilm re-releasing the film in cinemas to celebrate. For one, Avatar: Fire and Ash arrives in the public domain on 19th December, so that rules out that and the weeks leading up to Christmas are already chock full of blockbusters. Wicked For Good is expected to do huge numbers around the Thanksgiving weekend (a big filmgoing weekend in North America) and the House of Mouse has Zootropolis 2 opening on 27th November.
They won’t want anything to detract from bums on seats leading up to these films so, I could be wrong, but a theatrical re-release of the film seems pretty much off the table.
There is an event happening, however, in London in November. The Force Awakens is being shown at the Royal Albert Hall accompanied by a live orchestra. Tickets have sold well enough for the evening show that a matinee performance has been added, so if you’re a fan of the film then is your chance to see it a very special setting.
Now, there is one thing that Lucasfilm and Disney could do to acknowledge this film’s big birthday and it’s something I’ve been clamouring for since the Blu-ray release of the film back in 2016 and that is to release the table read for the film with the cast. When it was announced that we’d be getting this as a Blu-ray extra it sounded like a dream. It turned out to be just that was the thing was less than five minutes long and was merely clips. In short, it was a big let-down.
We’d waited years to see Luke Skywalker return, and we got him for sixty-seconds in The Force Awakens so here was the chance to hear the film narrated by Mark Hamill himself at the table read, but it was a damp squid.
Will Lucasfilm do the right thing and give us the whole thing? If it’s four hours then so be it. Disney+ is made for things like this. There would be no cost involved and could be a big hit. It the very least it would be something new.
We could maybe expect a t-shirt or a trinket or two to be available in the Disney Store shop, but I’d suspect that’s pretty much it. There’s always the possibility of a new physical release of the film on 4K and with some special packaging but I suspect that this anniversary will fly pretty much under the radar.
