Star Wars home video releases

This page describes the significant DVD releases of official Star Wars movies, TV shows and documentaries, excluding releases, which did not come directly from Lucasfilm, such as Star Wars Tech or spoof movies like Robot Chicken: Star Wars.

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace was released on DVD as a two-disc set in 2001, almost two years after the movie's theatrical release; it was the first Star Wars film to be officially released on DVD. The DVD version of the film had several scenes edited and inserted by George Lucas, making it slightly different and longer from its original theatrical release. The DVD also includes an audio commentary by George Lucas, producer Rick McCallum, editor Ben Burtt, animation director Rob Coleman, and visual effects supervisors John Knoll, Dennis Muren, and Scott Squires, as well as an easter egg (on-set bloopers) accessible through the sound menu by selecting THX and pressing 1138.

The second DVD in the set contains various bonus features:
 * Seven deleted scenes, which can be viewed separately, or as part of Deleted Scenes documantary
 * The Beginning: Making Episode I - an hour-long documentary chronicling the production of the movie
 * A 12-part collection of Lucasfilm's Web documentaries
 * Five featurettes exploring the storyline, design, costumes, visual effects, and fight sequences in the film
 * Multi-angle storyboard-to-animatic-to-film segment featuring the submarine and podrace lap 1 sequences
 * The Duel of the Fates music video featuring John Williams
 * Production photo gallery with captions
 * Posters and print campaign
 * Theatrical teaser and launch trailers
 * Seven TV spots
 * Star Wars: Starfighter - The Making of a Game featurette from LucasArts

This DVD release is of significantly lesser quality, compared to the later Star Wars movies DVD releases. A special edition of the DVD is awaited by fans, with digitally restored image quality and a digital Yoda replacing the original puppet amonst other changes.

Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones was released on DVD in November 2002 as a two-disc set that has picture and sound mastered from the original digital source material. The movie has several elements edited or added in by George Lucas that make the DVD version of the film slightly different from the theatrical release. The DVD also includes an audio commentary by George Lucas, producer Rick McCallum, editor Ben Burtt, animation director Rob Coleman and visual effects supervisors Pablo Helman, John Knoll and Ben Snow, as well as an easter egg (on-set bloopers) accessible through the sound menu by selecting THX and pressing 1138.

The second DVD in the set contains various bonus features:
 * Eight deleted scenes with an introduction by George Lucas
 * From Puppets to Pixels - a documentary about digital characters in the movie
 * State of the Art - a documentary about the previsualization of the movie
 * Films Are Not Released; They Escape - a featurette about creating sound effects for the movie
 * Three Featurettes exploring general storyline, action scenes and love story of the movie
 * A 12-part collection of Lucasfilm's Web documentaries
 * Across the Stars music video featuring John Williams
 * Production photo gallery with captions
 * Theatrical teasers and launch trailer
 * Twelve TV spots
 * Posters and print campaign
 * R2-D2: Beneath the Dome mockumentary trailer
 * "Episode II" visual effects breakdown montage

R2-D2: Beneath the Dome
R2-D2: Beneath the Dome is a 20-minute mockumentary telling the never before told life story of the astromech droid R2-D2. The film was made as a fun project by the cast and crew of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Using interviews, fake archive photos, film clips, and behind the scenes footage, the "true" story was told of Artoo's life. On December 26, 2002 it was released on DVD, which contained all three segments that were originally aired on US TV and released on StarWars.com, plus the ending credits and an easter egg of photos of R2-D2 on the sets of the Star Wars films. This DVD was a low-profile, non-advertised release.

Star Wars Trilogy DVD set
The Star Wars Trilogy DVD set, released in September 2004, was the first release of the Original Trilogy on DVD. It was a four-disk edition, which included the following:


 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
 * Star Wars Original Trilogy Bonus Disc

The movies on the DVDs were the Special Edition versions with several additional changes added especially for this release, including an extensive and comprehensive high-definition digital cleanup and several major image adjustments made in order to make the films visually resemble the Prequel Trilogy. Each of the movies DVD also includes an audio commentary by George Lucas, Ben Burtt, Dennis Muren and Carrie Fisher (The Empire Strikes Back commentary also features Irvin Kershner). The fourth DVD in the set contains various bonus features:
 * Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy - a full-length documentary, covering the history of the Original Trilogy.


 * The Characters of Star Wars - a featurette about the classic Star Wars characters
 * The Birth of the Lightsaber - a featurette about the impact of the lightsabers on Star Wars
 * The Force Is With Them: The Legacy of Star Wars - featurette about the impact of Star Wars Trilogy on movie indusrty
 * Episode III Preview: The Return of Darth Vader - a featurette about the upcoming Episode III
 * Production photo gallery with captions
 * Theatrical posters
 * Episode III - a featurette about the creation of the video game
 * Star Wars: Battlefront Trailer and a playable Xbox Demo
 * Theatrical teaser and launch trailers


 * TV Spots
 * On-set bloopers - Easter Egg

Star Wars: Ewok Adventures
On November 23, 2004, Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox released both "Ewoks" TV-made movies on DVD, which presents the films in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio with a Dolby Digital 2.0 English audio track and English subtitles. The release was billed as Star Wars: Ewok Adventures, a "double feature" of Caravan of Courage and its sequel, The Battle for Endor. The disc itself is double-sided, featuring one film on each side. The DVD release featured no extras, only the films themselves.

Star Wars Animated Adventures: Ewoks
Star Wars: Ewoks was released on DVD on November 23, 2004 as an edited compilation under the title Star Wars Animated Adventures: Ewoks. It contains eight episodes of the original series, edited together as two full length films. Episodes 2, 1, 3, and 9 were edited together to make The Haunted Village, and Episodes 10, 5, 4, and 13 were edited together to make Tales from the Endor Woods. The Haunted Village combines four loosely-related episodes into one story, while Tales from the Endor Woods connects four seemingly unrelated stories via a voiceover by Alex Lindsay intended to be an adult Wicket. The original opening credits and theme song are not included as part of the films, and were replaced with simple credit sequences.

According to Steve Sansweet at 2007's Celebration IV, Lucas himself cut together the film versions from his favorite episodes. The 1996-1997 VHS releases were meant to present that, and for the 2004 DVD release, the DVD team assumed that the re-edits were what Lucas wanted on the DVD. In the meantime however, there are currently no plans to release the entire series on DVD.

Star Wars Animated Adventures: Droids
Star Wars: Droids was released on DVD on November 23, 2004 as an edited compilation under the title Star Wars Animated Adventures: Droids. It contains eight episodes of the original series, edited together as two full length films. Episodes 5-8 were edited together to make The Pirates and the Prince, and Episodes 10-13 were edited together to make Treasure of the Hidden Planet. The Pirates and the Prince combines four of the five episodes of the Mon Julpa arc into one story, while Treasure of the Hidden Planet combines the four episodes of the Mungo Baobab arc into one story. Though "Coby and the Starhunters" was originally part of the Mon Julpa story arc, the episode isn't included in the feature version. The original opening credits and theme song are not included as part of the films, and were replaced with simple credit sequences. Besides cutting the theme song of the series, many other small modifications were made for the home video releases, most notably changes to the soundtrack.

According to Steve Sansweet at 2007's Celebration IV, Lucas himself cut together the film versions from his favorite episodes. The 1996-1997 VHS releases were meant to present that, and for the 2004 DVD release, the DVD team assumed that the re-edits were what Lucas wanted on the DVD. In the meantime however, there are currently no plans to release the entire series on DVD.

Star Wars: Clone Wars - Volume I
The first volume of the Star Wars: Clone Wars animated television series was released on DVD on March 22, 2005. It comprises seasons 1 and 2, which in turn are made up of Chapters 1-20. The DVD also includes following features:
 * An audio commentary track by Genndy Tartakovsky
 * Bridging the Saga - a documentary about the series showing the events between Episodes II and III
 * Trailers for the Episode III movie and Episode III video game
 * Concept art gallery
 * Playable Xbox demo for Star Wars: Republic Commando.

Star Wars: A Musical Journey
Star Wars: A Musical Journey bonus DVD was included with the soundtrack album for John Williams's musical score for Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, released May 3, 2005. The DVD runs for over an hour and contains a collection of music video clips from the Star Wars films, set to selected themes from Williams's scores. It also contains a preview trailer for the Revenge of the Sith video game. Each clip features an introduction by actor Ian McDiarmid. The DVD can be watched with or without this introduction.

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith was released on DVD on November 1, 2005 as a two-disc set that has picture and sound mastered from the original digital source material. The movie DVD includes an audio commentary by George Lucas, producer Rick McCallum, animation director Rob Coleman, and visual effects supervisors John Knoll and Roger Guyett. Unlike every other DVD release of a Star Wars film, Revenge of the Sith was released without any noticeable (upon first viewing) alterations by George Lucas from the film's digital theatrical cut. A closer inspection howecer revealed one change: there used to be a fading between the scene where Obi-Wan Kenobi leaves Mustafar, and the scene where Vader climbs away from the lava, which was removed from the DVD release. This was also the first DVD release not to contain a secret blooper reel of footage from filming as an easter egg. Instead it contains a rap video with a dancing Yoda and clone troopers.

The second DVD in the set contains various bonus features:
 * Six deleted scenes with introductions by George Lucas and Rick McCallum
 * Within a Minute - a documentary film about the making of the Mustafar duel
 * The Chosen One - a featurette about the path of Darth Vader through episodes 1-6
 * It's All for Real: The Stunts of Episode III - a featurette about the stunts of the movie
 * A 15-part collection of Lucasfilm's Web documentaries
 * A Hero Falls music video
 * Production photo gallery with captions
 * Poster and print campaign
 * Theatrical teasers and launch trailer
 * TV spots
 * Star Wars: Battlefront II trailer and playable Xbox demo
 * Star Wars: Empire at War trailer

The Story of Star Wars
The Story of Star Wars DVD was included with some initial copies of the Revenge of the Sith DVD exclusively at Wal-Mart stores. As with many previous Star Wars "history" featurettes, it is hosted with newly shot footage by the droid duo, R2-D2 and C-3PO. Presented in full frame with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound and running 1 hour in total, it was originally produced and released in 2004 as a 3-disc collection for the VideoNow Color personal video player. The DVD version contains the content from the first two discs: The Story of Anakin Skywalker and The Story of Luke Skywalker. The footage used contains no scenes from Revenge of the Sith nor does it have the changes contained in the 2004 DVD Special Edition releases.



Star Wars: Clone Wars - Volume II
The second volume of the Star Wars: Clone Wars animated television series was released on DVD on December 6, 2005. It comprises Season 3 of the series, which is in turn made up of Chapters 21-25. The DVD also includes following features:
 * An audio commentary from Genndy Tartakovsky
 * Connecting the Dots - a documentaty about the television series leading up to the Revenge of the Sith
 * Concept art gallery
 * Star Wars: Battlefront II trailer and playable X-Box demo
 * Star Wars: Empire at War trailer
 * Animated Lego Star Wars short film: Revenge of the Brick

Star Wars Trilogy - Unaltered
This re-release of the Original Trilogy is notable for being the first time original unaltered versions of the classic movies were oficially made available to fans on the DVD. Each of the films in this release is presented on two DVDs, with the 2004 re-mastered versions present on the first DVD and the original versions available as "bonuses" on the second DVD, although in this case it is clearly the "bonus" which is most interesting. Due to many fans being unhappy with Special Edition changes, the second DVD presents each movie in its original theatrical form, without digital restoration and, most importantly, changes present in subsequent releases.
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Prequel Trilogy and Original Trilogy box sets
This re-packaged releases features the same versions of the movies, as previously released two-disk editions of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (2001), Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002), Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005) and Star Wars Trilogy (2006). No new material is included in this sets.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars film
Star Wars: The Clone Wars was released on home video on November 11, 2008, as a single-disc DVD and a two-disc Special Edition DVD set. The single and double-disc standard-definition versions both include the widescreen film with Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround EX sound, and the audio commentary by director Dave Filoni, producer Catherine Winder, writer Henry Gilroy and editor Jason W. A. Tucker.

The second DVD in the set contains various bonus features:
 * The Clone Wars: The Untold Stories - Preview from Season One of The Clone Wars television series.
 * The Voices of The Clone Wars - a featurette about the voiceover actors
 * Gallery of Concept and Production Art
 * Webisodes: Six making-of featurettes, as seen on StarWars.com
 * Deleted Scenes: Cargo Bay, Platform Droid Fight, Rancor Pit and Through the Tanks
 * A New Score - a featurette about the score
 * Theatrical and videogame trailers
 * Take the Hologram Memory Challenge - a game to unlock three hi-def TV series sneak peeks
 * Theatrical and video game trailers

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: A Galaxy Divided
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: A Galaxy Divided is a collection of the first four episodes in Season One of The Clone Wars 3D animated television series, released on March 24, 2009. It includes the episodes: Ambush, Rising Malevolence', Shadow of Malevolence' and Destroy Malevolence.

Code names
For the releases of each of the theatrical films on DVD, the disc files were given code names in order to help prevent piracy. Most were named after female lead characters from 20th Century Fox properties being released on DVD around the time of the Star Wars film in question.

The names were as follows:
 * The Phantom Menace - "Laura", Laura (1944)
 * Attack of the Clones - "Mary", The Mary Tyler Moore Show and There's Something About Mary (1998)
 * Revenge of the Sith - "Charlotte", Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
 * A New Hope - "Eve (White)", The Three Faces of Eve (1957)
 * The Empire Strikes Back - "Eve (Black)" - The Three Faces of Eve (1957)
 * Return of the Jedi - "Jane", The Three Faces of Eve (1957)
 * A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi Limited Editions - "Sunrise"