Trailers have come a long way since 1979.
While it’s very true that movie trailers these days stick to a particular shot-by-shot formula that can get a little stale (I swear if I hear one more bass rumble…), they’re still much better than what we’ve gotten in the past. In the last fifteen years especially, movie trailers have come an exceptionally long way. There’s no greater proof of that fruits of that journey than The Force Awakens teaser trailer that debuted last year. In case you’ve forgotten it (which we seriously doubt), here it is for reference:
Now, compare that with the original teaser for The Empire Strikes Back… which is… umm… a bunch of awkward zooms and pans against concept art. With a voice over. We’ll, uh… we’ll let you watch it for yourself:
Seriously, is that “Landal Calrissian” the narrator said? It makes us cringe every time we watch it. Poor Lando deserved a better unveiling than that.
But what if The Empire Strikes Back had gotten the teaser trailer it deserved? Well, one intrepid youtuber named DanFlesher took it upon himself to make a new teaser trailer for the film modeled after The Force Awakens trailer. Does it work? Absolutely.
Note that he uses footage from the Despecialized Edition of the original film, which we give him major geek credit for. While we would have kept some of the more spoileriffic images out of the teaser such as Luke appearing all beat up and Han being tortured by Darth Vader, it all holds together really nicely. Okay, we may have changed that opening with the probe droids to something a bit more majestic too… but that’s it, we swear.
We love how the trailer keeps the focus on Luke and his journey into the world of the Force. Can he be turned to the dark or will he resist temptation? Using that thesis, it hits the beats of The Force Awakens trailer well as it builds up momentum to a fantastic finish.
So, give it a watch. It seems this is DanFlesher’s first video, so we’re hoping for more great stuff from him in the future.
