Nearly fifty years after it first hit screens, Star Wars: A New Hope is finally getting an IMAX release. Lucasfilm confirmed the news Monday, and it comes wrapped inside a bigger 50th-anniversary rollout that pairs the 1977 original with the studio's next theatrical outing, Star Wars: Starfighter.

Here's the shape of it. A newly restored A New Hope opens February 19, 2027, playing select IMAX 70mm film locations along with a run in regular theaters for a limited window. It's a genuine first. Whether in digital IMAX or on physical film, the movie that started the whole thing has never had an IMAX presentation before.

Then on May 28, 2027, Starfighter arrives, shot with IMAX-certified cameras and printed onto 70mm film for its own limited theatrical run. That date isn't random. It lands on the same anniversary weekend as the original Star Wars premiere in 1977, and director Shawn Levy says it wasn't even planned that way.

"We didn't even plan it that way, but I can't imagine a bigger dream come true," Levy said, according to TheWrap, speaking at D23.

Starfighter is set in a stretch of Star Wars timeline the franchise hasn't touched onscreen before, and it's only the second Star Wars theatrical release since The Rise of Skywalker in 2019, after years of the property living mostly on Disney+. Levy called the casting of Ryan Gosling the biggest personal win of the project, joking about Gosling's résumé running from Drive to La La Land before landing on the one Star Wars role everyone in the room actually cares about.

The cast around Gosling includes Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre, Jamael Westman, Daniel Ings, Flynn Gray and Amy Adams, per TheWrap, with JoBlo also naming Simon Bird among the ensemble. Jonathan Tropper wrote the script, Levy produces alongside Kathleen Kennedy, and Gosling himself is among the executive producers along with Mary McLaglen, Josh McLaglen, Dave Filoni and Dan Levine. JoBlo reported that Thomas Newman is scoring the film, a break from John Williams's usual seat at the console.

The timing of all this tracks with something bigger happening in exhibition right now. Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey has turned its 70mm IMAX run into an event unto itself, grossing $78 million globally on that format alone according to Variety, and selling out often enough that its IMAX residency got extended through September for an eleven-week run. Lucasfilm clearly sees the same appetite for premium film formats and is betting A New Hope and Starfighter can ride it.

What's still open is how wide the IMAX 70mm footprint actually gets. Both reports describe "select" locations rather than a full national rollout, and neither outlet has published a city list yet. That's the next thing to watch for, along with whatever Lucasfilm reveals as the rest of its 50th-anniversary calendar takes shape.