That first shot of the Bespin concept art is breath-taking, and if this were 1979 and you told me Luke and Vader were going to finally duel, I’d’ve just sat somewhere and cried tears of joy. Once again, fans were buying into a promise, albeit one much easier to believe. Still, the teaser played things simple, opting to show only McQuarrie’s gorgeous concept art and portraits of the characters instead of ffilm footage. Riding the massive tidal wave that was Star Wars, the Empire Strikes Back had a lot of room to stretch its legs. This isn’t my soap box for why spoilerphobia is dumb, but I have to say that I find this approach a lot of fun. You could never get away with that in today’s anti-spoiler culture. In a minute and a half, the new characters, locations, and climax of the film are revealed with context provided by the narrator.
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If the Empire Strikes Back teaser was released today, there would be riots on the street. What we got in the end, well, you know… The Empire Strikes Back Teaser Trailer – 1979 This “sprawling tale of rebellion and romance” features a whole lot of Luke and Leia - probably for the youngsters. Also notice how light on Han the teaser is. Interestingly enough, the teaser doesn’t really touch on the special effects that would really capture the audiences in ’77, but we do get brief glimpses of the Millennium Falcon and a TIE Fighter in battle, as well as the exploding titles at the end. The title creeps closer, as the narrator promises us that Star Wars is unlike anything we’ve ever seen on our planet. Maybe because I know how it turned out in the end or because this trailer is awesome, I can imagine myself sitting in a theater in 1976 and watching this teaser with the sense that something world-changing was fastly approaching. We all know how it goes: “The story of a boy, a girl, and the universe!” Well, I guess that’s close enough for an epic sci-fi film with tons of production issues and a delay from Christmas 1976 to Summer 1977.
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Relive the promise of each installment with us in our quick history of Star Wars teaser trailers! Star Wars Teaser Trailer – 1976
#WATCH STAR WARS THE FORCE AWAKENS TRAILER FULL#
These teasers are awesome pieces of nostalgia, full of epic voice-overs (peep James Earl Jones in the original REVENGE of the Jedi teaser), beautiful concept art from Ralph McQuarrie, and just lots of awesome Star Wars.
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To kind of prevent any panic attacks at the Den of Geek offices, we decided to take a look back at the teasers that have come before from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. I said it should be “The Imperial March,” but Mike Cecchini is all about “Yoda’s Theme.” The point is that we’re very excited. Not only did we examine that rumored trailer gif a thousand times, arguing back and forth about whether it was real footage or not, but we also speculated about what theme might be included in the new teaser when it inevitably drops. If you’re like us, then the announcement of a Star Wars: The Force Awakens teaser trailer pretty much made your holiday.