Star Wars fans rejoice!

After decades of imploring pleas, Lucasfilm has decided to release the original versions of the classic Star Wars trilogy – Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back! and The Return of the Jedi.

The latest DVDs are versions that premiered in 1977, 1980 and 1983. Over the years, creator George Lucas revised and expanded those films, provoking dismay among fans of the early movies.

The new two-disk limited editions will be released on Sept 12 through Dec 31. Each set will include commentary by Lucas and by crew and cast members.

Star Wars devotees have been clamoring for years for the originals, which should push sales beyond the 2004 DVD box set. Lucasfilm’s John Singh said that set was the “best selling DVD set of all time.”

Amy Kalinowski, a Nacogdoches, Tex., contractor with SBC Yellow Pages, is anxiously awaiting the new release. “Oh, absolutely. I will be waiting on the doorstep to get it _ whichever doorstep whether it’ll be in stores, or online. Wherever I have to go to be the first one to get it that’s where I’ll go.”

Anne Collins Smith, a professor of classical studies at the Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas, owns several versions of the movies -- VHS tape, laserdisc – but “greatly prefers the original versions.”

“I particularly dislike the whitewashing of Han Solo's interaction with Greedo, which makes his character more bland and less edgy,” she said.

Smith and others have persistently complained about one moment in the revised “Star Wars” where a gun battle between Han Solo, played by Harrison Ford, and Greedo, an alien creature, is changed markedly. In the original, Han fires first. In one revision, Greedo attacks and Han defends himself. In another, they fire simultaneously.