WATCH: Original Teasers For All Seven Star Wars Films
By Ryan Donoho
When the teaser for Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released on Black Friday, the internet went nuts. The 88 second trailer has gone viral, with over 40 million views on YouTube in under three days.
All Star Wars fans have gone into a frenzy as well, debating every frame from the video. Although we didn’t get a glimpse of our classic heroes, there are already countless art pieces, memes, and photos of the new cast.
To say that the Star Wars fan base has been awakened would be an understatement.
The Force Awakens will be the seventh film in this episodic saga, and each film has brought its own fanfare. Whether it be the mystery and wonder of the original Star Wars in 1977, or our first glimpse of the birth of Darth Vader in the Revenge of the Sith teaser in 2005, our first looks at these films have tugged at the hearts and minds of Star Wars fans. This most recent one may have been the ultimate explosion in fandom.
Let’s take a look back at our first glimpses of each film with their original teaser trailers:
THE PHANTOM MENACE (1999)
Our first look at young Anakin Skywalker. This teaser ignited fans’ interest as the back story to Star Wars was about to begin,
ATTACK OF THE CLONES (2002)
Here we get a heavy dose of Vader reference, and his heavy breathing takes us through images from the film.
REVENGE OF THE SITH (2005)
This teaser tugs at our hearts. They show Obi-Wan from A New Hope, and give us a small preview of the birth of Darth Vader. Chills.
STAR WARS (1977)
Our first video from this legendary film. After a lot of promoting and mystery surrounding this film, a look at the actual movie made us wonder what this Star Wars thing could become. Hopefully it was all happening somewhere in space.
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (1980)
Over a minute of concept art? Awesome. This teaser not only pronounces names wrong, but it only shows us what Ralph McQuarrie was working on for the film. Nowadays concept art tends to be more secretive unless you are a spoiler site. They’ve seen it all.
RETURN OF THE JEDI (1983)
Revenge of the Jedi? That’s right, this film was originally called Revenge instead of Return. The powers of Lucasfilm realized Jedi are not about revenge so they changed it. Either way this was awesome.
THE FORCE AWAKENS (2015)
There’s been an awakening, have you felt it? We know Star Wars fans have. Sadly, this amazing teaser set us up for a long wait to next December. In this clip we get a look at some new characters in the saga, and a cool little droid. Any chance we can all get frozen in carbonite and wake up next year?
Star Wars has always been a cultural phonomenon, and last Friday proved that it still is. Is it December 2015 yet?