GMA shares new special featuring rare footage from The Empire Strikes Back

Photo: Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980).. © Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
Photo: Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980).. © Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

Good Morning America has shared a charming mini-documentary featuring rare footage from Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.

2020 may be winding down, but that doesn’t mean the celebration of The Empire Strikes Back’s 40th anniversary is over just yet. The celebration has been going on all year long, and today, Good Morning America shared something extra special for the Star Wars fans who hold this movie dear to their hearts.

The show released a new, almost 7-minute mini-documentary on The Empire Strikes Back, and it’s chock full of footage from the set of the movie. Plus, it includes voice-over interviews from the likes of George Lucas, Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams, and Anthony Daniels. This mini-documentary was first teased by ABC correspondent Clayton Sandell early this morning. And later, he tweeted out the announcement of the exclusive new special.

Some of the highlights of this special include a look back at the wonderful, late Carrie Fisher who reprised her role as Leia in this film. You get to see what her chemistry was like on set with the others when the cameras weren’t rolling, and it’s enough to make any Star Wars fan emotional. You also get to see what some of the sets were like from the film, including how they created the snowy Hoth environment (in Finse, Norway) and what it really looked like to pilot an X-Wing to Dagobah in “space.” You can check out the full special in the YouTube video below, or you can watch it on the GMA website.

According to GMA, this special was produced by Lucasfilm, and some of the footage is being seen for the very first time. It’s definitely a treat to give Star Wars fans a gift like this — just in time for the holiday season too.

Luckily, if you couldn’t get enough of this after watching, there’s good news in store. As Sandell teased in a follow-up tweet, “there is another.” On Dec. 16, the Star Wars Show will release a second part to this featurette, which looks like it will include current Star Wars big-names as they pay homage to the fifth movie in the series.

The next featurette is said to include Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy (who recently announced a handful of new Star Wars projects last week), as well as The Mandalorian’s Pedro Pascal, Dave Filoni, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Taika Waititi, and (last but not least) Deborah Chow, Leslye Headland, and Diego Luna. The next one should be a good one, and we can’t wait to see what else is in store.

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