Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Director's Cut)

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Director's Cut) is the Blu-ray Disc release of the director's cut of . This release featured the digitally remastered "Director's Cut" (formerly the "Director's Edition") of the film, newly re-remastered from the original negatives, but also the remastered theatrical version of the film, originally done for its earlier, 2009 Blu-ray release.
The initial release was subject to a master assembly error , prompting Paramount Home Entertainment to open an exchange service for fans to receive a corrected copy. It also explained why the Region B rollout only took place over a month later, which by that time was relatively late for DVD/Blu-ray disc releases.
Alongside the regular one, Region B saw a simultaneous release in the SteelBook® variant (pictured below), which was initially intended to be a part of the . Nonetheless, all ten films saw concurrent European general, non-limited retail individual releases as well in the UK, Germany, Italy (where no regular release was issued), and France, the SteelBooks typically packaged in transparent plastic slipcases with the usual Blu-ray disc band imprinted at the top. In all cases the text imprints on the back of the SteelBooks were language adapted. Initially assumed to be the original 2009 Blu-ray disc release due to its generic cover art and corresponding text imprints on the back covers , it turned out however, that it actually concerned the Director's Cut as was confirmed a short while later by customers and reviewers alike. 
File:Star Trek II Director's Cut Blu-ray cover Region A back.jpg|Region A USA back cover (Yellow UPC is the corrected disc)
File:Star Trek II Director's Cut Blu-ray steelbook cover Region B.jpg|Region B SteelBook® cover
File:Star Trek II Director's Cut Blu-ray steelbook back cover Region B Italy.jpg|Italian Region B SteelBook® back cover
File:Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan Director's Cut Blu-ray 2021 Remaster cover.jpg|2021 Region A cover with download option
File:Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan Director's Cut Region B UK Blu-ray 2021 Remaster cover.jpg|2021 Region B cover
File:Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan Director's Cut Region B UK Blu-ray 2021 Remaster back cover.jpg|2021 Region B back cover
In September 2021 the box set was released, which contained the in re-remastered first four which were also issued separately as such, The Motion Picture excepted. Concurrently, to 1080p downscaled Blu-ray versions of each film, The Motion Picture (Theatrical Cut only) included, were concurrently issued as well. While the other three films benefited greatly from the re-remastered upgrade, the Wrath of Khan did not need one as the 4K remaster work had already been done for the 2016 release (see below). The 2021 release was therefore essentially merely a reissue of the original 2016 release, featuring the same below-mentioned special features. The Region A release though, had an additional digital download version available as well, obtainable by a to the US and British Canada geo-restricted redeemable code, which was not included on the Region B release.
While in some cases marketed as region-restricted, this release is in actuality region-free as this has increasingly become commonplace for the Blu-ray disc format. And as was likewise becoming increasingly commonplace in a physical home video disc market that was starting to shrink fast, no DVD counterpart was issued for this particular release either. Those dwindling number of DVD customers still wanting one, had to make do with the original release from 2002.
==Special features==
The "BD Live: Star Trek I.Q" excepted and save for a newly, by Roger Lay, Jr. produced one, all other special features were taken from the previous 2009 theatrical version Blu-ray disc release of the film, turning it into the most complete home video version commercially available at the time of its release.
;† - in 1080p (others in standard definition)
*Audio commentary by Director Nicholas Meyer (Director's Cut)
*Audio commentary by Director Nicholas Meyer and Manny Coto (Theatrical Version)
*Text commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda (Director's Cut)
*Library Computer (Theatrical Version, embedded)
*The Genesis Effect: Engineering The Wrath of Khan (new for this release) † (28:11)
*Production
**The Captain's Log (27:21)
**Designing Khan (23:55)
**Original interviews with DeForest Kelley, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and Ricardo Montalban (10:57)
**Where No Man Has Gone Before: The Visual Effects of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (18:15)
**James Horner: Composing Genesis (9:33) †
*The Star Trek Universe
**Collecting Star Trek's Movie Relics with Alec Peters (11:00) †
**A Novel Approach (28:56)
**Starfleet Academy SciSec Brief 002: Mystery Behind Ceti Alpha VI (3:07) † 
*Farewell: A Tribute to Ricardo Montalban (4:43) †
*Storyboards
*Theatrical Trailer (2:22) †
==Background information==
*It should be noted that this release is not quite an one-on-one remastered version of the 2002 Director's Edition DVD release. The remastered version is slightly differently cut and lacks one short, ten seconds scene, in which Kirk mentions David being his son to Spock and Saavik – aka the "In the funnel"-scene – , that was included on the DVD version (at 1:21:04 on the NTSC version).
*Concurrently, this also meant that the Okudas' original text commentary track was initially not included on this release as it was now out of sync, though it was (re-)inserted on the corrected version after all , in the process becoming the only Star Trek film to carry one on its Blu-ray disc version. On the other hand, Nicholas Meyer's original DVD audio commentary was already edited to fit the newly cut release.
*Roger Lay's newly made The Genesis Effect: Engineering The Wrath of Khan special feature was actually produced with the larger, five-part Star Trek: The Journey to the Silver Screen documentary in mind, as one of its chapters. That documentary was included on a bonus disc in the Blu-ray disc set, released two months later. Incidentally, it was the Director's Cut that was included in that set as well, but without the theatrical cut.
*On 10 and 13 September 2017, this version of the Director's Cut was given a limited theatrical release to celebrate the film's 35th anniversary. 
*The Director's Cut had been remastered in the new 4K HD 2160p resolution format – incidentally having made a theatrical HD release even viable – , though it had been down-scaled to the 1080p resolution format for the underlying Blu-ray disc home video release. Still, a subsequent 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray home video format release has been under advisement ever since. 
*It was only on 7 July 2021 that the long awaited Wrath of Khan 4K UHD BD was finally announced for a September 2021 release in both film versions, both as part of the aforementioned 55th anniversary "Star Trek: The Original 4-Movie Collection" box set, collecting the first four , as well as a stand-alone release.
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