On November 15, Lucasfilm and Disney will bring Star Wars: The Force Awakens to Blu-ray — again! This time, the set will include the 3D version of the film and much more extra content. How much more extra content? Enough to fill four discs, apparently. It’ll be a must have for any collector.
Entertainment Weekly broke the contents of this new Blu-ray set yesterday. Check them out below!
- Feature commentary from director J.J. Abrams! (YES!)
- Foley: A Sonic Tale – how the little sounds of foley design enhance the reality of Star Wars.
- Sounds of the Resistance – a featurette about the signature sounds created for The Force Awakens.
- Deleted Scenes – Even more footage that never made the final cut.
- Dressing the Galaxy – How the film’s costume designers worked their magic.
- The Scavenger and the Stormtrooper – this conversation between Daisy Ridley and John Boyega was previously exclusive to Target stores, but will now be available to all!
- Inside the Armory – You want blasters and lightsabers? Look no further.
Now, I know what some of you are thinking — this is a classic double dip. And you’re right! Back when DVD and Blu-ray weren’t on the decline, studios used to release better, more loaded sets all the time. But the releases were strategic. They waited until we all owned the movie already, then BOOM — they would announce the version we were all waiting for. If the DVD and Blu-ray market weren’t in such a sorry state, I’d be annoyed. But the first home video release for The Force Awakens was pretty fluffy in the extras department, and it’ll be nice to have something more comprehensive on our shelves. The 3D version is also a nice touch, too, even if home 3D is still kind of impractical.
My biggest hope for this collector’s edition is that the commentary and special features will be more substantive. The featurettes and documentaries on the current set are much too breezy. They seem focused on marketing rather than educating fans about the making of the movie. Why market the film to fans who already purchased the movie on Blu-ray? Bash the prequels all you like, but the two-disc DVDs had great extras. I’m glad to see that Disney saw an opportunity to give fans the extras they deserve.