Star Wars: A New Hope Is Getting a Version With No Original Voices. Here’s When It Arrives

Star Wars fans are about to get an A New Hope unlike the one they have known for decades. Disney and Lucasfilm are releasing a complete Welsh-language edition that replaces the familiar English dialogue and on-screen text with a new presentation for Welsh-speaking audiences.

The new release is titled Star Wars: Gobaith Newydd and is based on the 1977 film A New Hope. It will debut on S4C and its streaming platforms on Christmas Day 2026. For viewers who want to experience the film in Welsh, this is more than a limited translation. The original English cast performances are being swapped out for a newly recorded track, and the movie’s text elements are changing as well.

The announced voice lineup includes Matthew Rhys as Han Solo, Rhys Ifans as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Aimee-Ffion Edwards as Princess Leia, Mark Lewis Jones as Darth Vader, and Osian Morgan as Luke Skywalker. Lucasfilm co-president Lynwen Brennan said in August that she hopes the native-language version will make audiences feel as though they are seeing the classic for the first time.

What this changes, and what it does not

The immediate change affects Welsh-speaking fans who will now have a full local-language way to watch one of the franchise’s most important films when the new edition arrives this Christmas.

It also does not replace the English original in the company’s broader plans for the movie. A New Hope is still scheduled to return to cinemas in February 2027 for its 50th anniversary. That anniversary year is also set to include a new Star Wars exhibition and new comic lines, including Star Wars/Marvel: Hope Assembles and Star Wars: Triple Take.

Even with those other anniversary projects on the calendar, Gobaith Newydd stands out as an unusual presentation shift for Star Wars, giving a new audience a different way into George Lucas’s universe.