Entertainment

‘Empire Strikes Back’ Recut Trailer Might Spoil 'Last Jedi' Twist

The difference between Star Wars films in the ‘80s and Star Wars movies today might literally only be one thing: the trailers are just cut differently. A new fan-made video may have accidentally proven that everything we think we know about Kylo Ren and Rey could be totally wrong.

On October 11, YouTube user The Unusual Suspect uploaded a customized trailer which sets footage from The Empire Strikes Back to the music and dramatic beats of the latest Last Jedi trailer. If you’ve somehow never seen The Empire Strikes Back, this trailer might make you believe that Luke and Darth Vader could team up at the end. Of course, no such thing occurred in The Empire Strikes Back, but when edited to resemble The Last Jedi trailer, it’s easy to believe it could happen.

The point is, until The Last Jedi actually hits theaters, speculating on the plot is similar to betting on a horse race that has already taken place in secret. Sure, we know certain horses have better odds at winning certain races, but odds don’t necessarily mean much when it comes to the real thing. To mix metaphors even further, trailers for Star Wars movies could be seen as the gossip column of the galaxy far, far away. We know some of this is based in truth, but we don’t know the whole story.

If The Empire Strikes Back had been marketed like The Last Jedi, then fans would have gone into the film expecting some kind of specific twist. As it stands, no one was expecting the Darth Vader twist because no one was thinking about Luke’s father all that much. That twist created a new expectation viewers have for these kinds of movies — they’re expecting something insane to happen. And so, The Last Jedi trailer teases that something insane will indeed happen. This has become an art form in and of itself, but it’s not necessarily a good indicator of what will really happen.

Plus, Star Wars movies have another secret weapon at their disposal that they didn’t have in 1980: the ability to incorporate footage into trailers that never actually appear in the final film. It happened with The Force Awakens, and it happened a lot with Rogue One. In other words, who’s to say Kylo holding out his hand to Rey will even end up happening in the actual movie?

The Last Jedi will hit theaters on December 15.

If you liked this article, check out this video about two huge twists revealed in the Last Jedi trailer.

Related Tags