Celebrate The Nostalgia Of Every First ‘Star Wars’ Movie Teaser

I should probably stop watching that new Star Wars trailer, but I’m not going to. I have vivid memories of the first time teenage David, college-age David, and workforce David watched the first teasers for various new Star Wars movies, because there’s no feeling quite like it. Yes, even for Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, which seemed so amazing at the time that I must have watched it, gosh, I can’t even count how many times. How silly that feels, in hindsight.

Now that we have the official teasers for all three trilogies, culminating with the end of the Skywalker saga (for now), appropriately titled Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, we can finally dump them all in an article for your perusal.

In case you have no idea why a weird cackle in a Star Wars trailer has any significance, or you just want to reminisce, as I have, about your feelings when you first saw the early teasers for various other Star Wars films, let’s take a quick trip into the Holocrons. Here’s how the various other Star Wars films have used teasers to whet geeky appetites over the years:

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace

How many times did you watch Meet Joe Black for this?

Star Wars: Attack of the Clones 

Short, simple, satisfying. Who would have thought that breathing would make such an effective first teaser?

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith

It’s impossible to not feel something when you see that Binary Sunset and hear that delicious John Williams theme.

Star Wars: A New Hope

My, how times have changed.

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

My favourite film in the franchise had one of the weirdest teasers by far”at least, I can’t think of the last time I saw concept art as the trailer for a film.

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

Fun fact: I can only ride Star Tours once in a day, or else I get motion sick. Also, this trailer is pretty upbeat and peppy for the film’s darker content. Those poor murdered Ewoks.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

That majestic shot of the huge-arse Star Destroyer is one of the best starts to a Star Wars trailer I’ve ever seen. But don’t take my word for it. With The Force Awakens debuting at a time when it’s normal for everyone to record everything they do, crowd reactions to this first teaser are almost as fun to watch as the trailer itself.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Mark Hamill could read the phone book and I’d watch a trailer for it. And I wish John Williams could write music for my life. Also, insert requisite crowd reaction video here.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

And here we are ” the finale. Er, the first teaser for the big ending, which had the expected amount of fan exuberance when it debuted this past week. Three decades of story-building ended with this film and the immense fan expectations made it a tough quality to live up to.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Weird naming convention aside, Rogue One has been my favourite spin-off Star Wars story, period. The ending is perfect, as is the super-bonus “holy shit” ending”at least, what I said the first time I saw it.

Solo: A Star Wars Story

This teaser’s soundtrack was pretty solid, I’ll give it that. It still feels a little weird to have Khaleesi flying around space with Haymitch Abernathy, but not nearly as weird as that tentacle monster thing that felt like a “well, we have a lot of CGI budget left so, here’s an idea…” addition to the film. Oops. Spoilers.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Did this big introduction for the animated Star Wars TV show even get a teaser trailer? I can’t recall even seeing the film in theatres, I confess.

Super-bonus: The Mandalorian series

Superfans of the Star Wars franchise tend to have an affinity toward a particular helmet-garbed bounty hunter”no, not Zuckuss. Rather, the bounty hunter who spent most of his screentime in the original trilogy getting his arse kicked. It’s only fitting that his people, the Mandalorians, get their own spin-off TV show to illustrate how badass they actually are.

This article has been updated since its original publication.