Star Wars (1977) is coming to IMAX for the first time ever, in any format, as part of its 50th anniversary theatrical return on February 19, 2027, with Star Wars: Starfighter following in IMAX 70mm that May on the exact anniversary weekend of the original film’s premiere.
The original Star Wars, later retitled Star Wars: A New Hope, has never screened in IMAX before in any format, digital or film. That changes February 19, 2027, when a newly restored version of the 1977 film returns to theaters, playing across a select number of IMAX 70mm film locations along with a wider run in standard theaters for a limited time. It’s the centerpiece of Lucasfilm’s yearlong 50th anniversary celebration, and getting the original film onto IMAX screens for the first time is a real milestone for a movie that’s been rereleased in theaters more times than almost anything else in franchise history.
Star Wars: Starfighter follows on May 28, 2027, the same weekend the original film premiered five decades earlier, and it’s the more technically ambitious of the two releases. The film was shot with IMAX-certified cameras and converted to IMAX 70mm film prints for a select number of IMAX film locations, giving it the same premium treatment Lucasfilm has used for its biggest recent releases. Ryan Gosling stars as Kade Auberon, a cynical rogue confronted by his mysterious past and pulled into a dangerous chase across the galaxy that puts him on a collision course with destiny. Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre, Jamael Westman, Daniel Ings, Flynn Gray, and Amy Adams round out the cast. Jonathan Tropper wrote the script, Levy and Kathleen Kennedy produced, and Gosling joins Mary McLaglen, Josh McLaglen, Dave Filoni, and Dan Levine as executive producers.
Landing Starfighter’s release on the exact 50th anniversary weekend is the kind of scheduling that only works once, and Lucasfilm clearly built the whole year around hitting that date. Giving the original film its first-ever IMAX presentation just three months earlier means Star Wars fans get a genuine historical first and a brand new IMAX-native film inside the same anniversary window, which is a much bigger swing than a standard rerelease and a new movie happening to land in the same year.
We’ve been tracking Lucasfilm’s yearlong 50th anniversary plans since Star Wars: The Experience was announced for the Franklin Institute, and we covered Starfighter’s D23 2026 teaser reveal when Ryan Gosling and director Shawn Levy brought it to the Entertainment Showcase stage.
