Star Wars: The Force Awakensdoesn’t hit theaters until December 18th, but if you want to watch any of the other sixStar Warsmovies - and you don’t happen to own them on VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, or some form of Digital Download, or want to shell out the money to buy them - then you’re out of luck … unless a new rumor that all of theStar Warsfilms are coming to Netflix turns out to be true.
With the recent news thatEPIX is cutting ties with Netflixin order to offer downloadable content for offline viewing, some wondered if the streaming-content giant would have any sort of response. Since they steadfastly refuse to offer offline content - a stance Netflix competitorAmazon has recently taken advantage ofin order to be more accessible - perhaps Netflix is banking on their sheer volume of content to keep viewers' eyes glued to their screens. Or perhaps they’re waiting to announce that more quality content, ie theStar Warsmovies, will be available to stream exclusively through Netflix.
As streaming news siteExstreamistreports, there’s a rumor that Netflix will be the first (and possibly, only) provider to stream theStar Warsfranchise. Perhaps this announcement will be tied into a deal with Disney/Lucasfilm for streaming rights toStar Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakensafter its theatrical run. The site also lists a Netflix search page forStar Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Backas evidence that the company is readying itself for the transition (but does not mention it could be a holdover from a DVD page for the same film).
Here’s a look at the “evidence” ofNetflix’sStar Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Backpageholder:
Honestly, it’s all wishing and speculating at this point. Disney has already made theirStar Warsfilms and spin-off series available to watch/download (for a fee) over at Amazon and iTunes to name two, and you can buy them outright in the digital formats. Netflix does, however, currently offerStar Wars: The Clone Warsfor streaming viewers right now, so maybe that will form a foundation for the live-action films appearing there in the future. It’s a pretty weak rumor at the moment, but stranger things have happened.
Update #1:Speaking of strange things, apparently AMC Theaters jumped the gun on their social media accounts, announcing aStar Warsmarathon. They then deleted the tweet, and replaced the landing page with a customizedStar Wars-themed 404. I’m sure we’ll get an official announcement of tickets going on sale for aStar Warsmarathon leading up to the release ofStar Wars: The Force Awakenssooner than later, now that the Bantha’s out of the bag (viaStar Wars Junk):
Update #2:Netflix has reached out to say that “there are no current plans to stream [theStar Warsfilms] at this time.” Time will tell!
