Rare Revenge of the Jedi Trailer Unearthed After More Than 30 Years

Before the third installment in the original Star Wars trilogy was released in theaters in 1983, it was initially titled Revenge of the Jedi. George Lucas later changed it to Return of the Jedi, because he believed revenge wasn’t something a Jedi Knight would seek out. The movie was teased in theaters with trailers and posters so far in advance that its title still remained Revenge of the Jedi before Lucas changed it to the title we know today.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recently unearthed the film's very first teaser trailer, which ran attached to a double-bill re-release of Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back in the U.K. in May of 1982. The teaser doesn’t feature any footage, just a handful of production stills set to John Williams’s iconic score. It also spoils the return of Han Solo, who was encased in carbonite in the previous movie.

Aside from the old title, the teaser also features a release date of Christmas 1983, while Return of the Jedi hit theaters seven months prior to that—on May 25, 1983.

[h/t HitFix]

Images courtesy Oscars/YouTube.