The Original Star Wars Teaser Trailer (1976)

Aug 03, 2020

Before “A New Hope”, “Star Wars” was just “Star Wars” and in 1976 a trailer was released for a film that would change pop culture and cinema. Its tone was nothing like what you would come to associate with the original film, mostly because it lacked the rousing John Williams’ score that we all know so well.

This trailer has some classical music by Vivaldi playing lightly, but mostly focuses on movie audio and narration and its borderline creepy narration. Yet, despite this, people still flocked to see the film. That narration is provided by Malachi Throne who has contributed his talents to several pop culture powerhouses including Batman and Star Trek.

That movie audio by itself? It works incredibly well and that is a testament to the talents of Sound Designer Ben Burtt.

This trailer starts with a statement that almost flies in the face of the Star Wars we know. The narrator says, “Somewhere in space this may all be happening right now.” A far cry from, “A long time ago. In a galaxy far far away.”

Throughout the trailer we get an ever-growing Star Wars logo that will eventually explode like a Death Star. But notice the font on that logo (picture above). It is a much more generic font than the specialized one they would use for the theatrical release.

The charm in this trailer is its lack of polish. The dialogue seems cobbled together and a little trite. Even at the end where the narrator says that it is “a billion years in the making” sounds like something you might guess the film could be about. Then again, any film could make that claim if you really bend things.

The The ReDiscovered Future put together a re-mastered version of this original trailer a few years ago. It is carefully restored with cleaned footage and scenes from Star Wars Despecialized Edition Remastered. With original scenes and elements reused wherever possible. The results are pretty spectacular.