Star Wars Is Finally Coming to IMAX 50 Years Later, and Fans Have a Big-Screen Date to Remember

Star Wars is about to do something it has never done before. Fifty years after the original movie changed Hollywood forever, Star Wars: A New Hope is finally getting an official IMAX release. Lucasfilm has confirmed that the classic 1977 movie will return to theaters in 2027 as part of the franchise’s 50th anniversary celebration, giving fans a chance to see the galaxy far, far away on one of the biggest screens possible.

The news comes from Lucasfilm’s latest announcement about its plans for the major anniversary year. The studio will bring the restored original Star Wars back to theaters on February 19, 2027, with select IMAX locations showing the movie in 70mm film. It will also receive a wider limited theatrical release in standard theaters. While A New Hope has returned to cinemas many times since its original release, it has never played in IMAX, making this more than just another anniversary screening.

The timing could hardly be more fitting. Star Wars first arrived in theaters in May 1977 and quickly became a worldwide phenomenon. The movie changed the way studios thought about blockbuster films, special effects, merchandising, and the entire moviegoing experience. Since then, audiences have seen the original film in many different versions and formats, but the IMAX experience has always been missing from its long theatrical history. That finally changes in 2027.

Fans will not have to wait long after that for another major Star Wars event. Lucasfilm is also preparing the release of Star Wars: Starfighter, which is scheduled to arrive on May 28, 2027. The date is especially important because it falls during the same anniversary weekend as the original movie’s 1977 debut. Unlike A New Hope, Starfighter was designed with IMAX in mind from the beginning and was filmed using IMAX-certified cameras.

Starfighter is being directed by Shawn Levy and stars Ryan Gosling as a space pilot caught in a new adventure set within the Star Wars universe. The movie is expected to make strong use of large-format filmmaking, especially during its action scenes and space battles. Having the new film arrive just a few months after the first-ever IMAX presentation of A New Hope gives Lucasfilm a chance to celebrate both the history and the future of the franchise on huge screens.

The IMAX plans also arrive at a time when interest in 70mm filmmaking has reached another level. Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has helped drive that renewed excitement, with the movie reportedly becoming the highest-grossing IMAX release ever after earning more than $450 million worldwide in the format. Its 70mm screenings have also generated huge numbers, showing that moviegoers are still willing to make the effort to see major films in traditional large-format presentations.

The anniversary celebration will be even bigger because Star Wars is already returning to theaters in other ways. The Mandalorian and Grogu became the franchise’s first theatrical release since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker, giving Disney and Lucasfilm another way to bring Star Wars back to the big screen. With A New Hope and Starfighter both getting special IMAX treatment in 2027, the studio appears ready to make the 50th anniversary feel like a major theatrical event rather than just another anniversary.

For longtime Star Wars fans, however, the biggest attraction may simply be getting to see A New Hope in a way that has never been possible before. The movie has been watched countless times at home, on television, on Blu-ray, and through streaming, but there is still something different about sitting in a theater and watching the original adventure unfold on a massive screen. Seeing the opening crawl, the Millennium Falcon, the Death Star, and the final battle in IMAX could make a familiar movie feel new again.

Lucasfilm has not yet revealed exactly how many IMAX 70mm locations will screen the restored film, so availability will likely be limited. Still, the announcement gives fans a date to circle on the calendar. After 50 years, Star Wars is finally getting its first IMAX chapter, and 2027 could become one of the biggest years for the franchise’s theatrical history.

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