The Academy responsible for the Oscars has released a super rare, super old teaser trailer for Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.
So just how old is this teaser? Well for one, the film is referred to by its original title of Star Wars: Revenge of the Jedi.
The entire thing is also comprised of stills, which is how they did teasers back in days of yore, apparently.
This teaser was in fact only ever seen (until now) by fans who attended a back-to-back re-release of A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back in the UK in 1982. I bet those fans feel a bit cheated now.
The Academy wrote in an article that the trailer recently came into its possession, though it doesn’t specify how they got it or who gave it to them – kind of like with Maz Kanata and Luke’s lightsaber in Episode VII.
According to the Academy, there were discussions about moving the movie closer to Christmas in the UK (hence the date in the trailer).
This would have made it possible to display props and costumes from Return of the Jedi in UK department stores during the movie’s showing, but in the end it was decided that the film would release in the UK on June 2.
Check out the teaser below. Then, just because it’s a fun comparison, check out the first teaser for The Force Awakens below that.
How fucking great is Star Wars though? If you’re hungry for a bit more, check out this awesome Rebel versus Imperial dogfight, shot entirely with drones.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.