Oscar Awards Reveals Rare 1982 ‘Star Wars: Revenge of the Jedi’ Trailer

To celebrate the anniversary of Return of the Jedi‘s original theatrical release, the Academy of Motion Pictures on Wednesday unearthed a rare promotional teaser for the third and final installment of the original Star Wars trilogy. But there’s a twist.

Watch below:

Anybody familiar with Star Wars knows the title of the final original film is Return of the Jedi, but many may not know that creator George Lucas had at one point renamed the film Revenge of the Jedi, because he thought “Return” sounded too weak. In fact, the film carried the “Revenge” title for months up to the film’s release to the point where promotional teasers and movie posters were released across the country. It was not until closer to the final May 25, 1983 release date that Lucas realized that “Revenge” was incongruous with the “Jedi way” and changed the title back to Return.

What makes this clip even more special for the Academy is that it’s from the United Kingdom, where Lucas and the studio were toying with a Christmas 1983 release date – hence the Christmas plug in the video.

From the YouTube page:

“The Academy Film Archive holds several trailers from the United States with the initial “Revenge” title, most of which announcing a May 25th 1983 release date which coincided with the anniversary of the original “Star Wars” stateside release in 1977. However, this peculiar and very brief “Revenge of the Jedi” teaser trailer originated from a cinema in the United Kingdom, where the film was originally being considered for a Christmas 1983 release. This teaser was apparently shown with the U.K.’s May 1982 double feature re-release of “Star Wars” and “The Empire Strikes Back.” American audiences would not get a glimpse of the third film until “Star Wars” was re-released in the U.S. in August 1982, meaning that this may be the earliest “Revenge” trailer distributed – and fans from across the pond got the first peek!”

So, the Brits may have had the first glimpse of Return of the Jedi, and nobody knew? The moral of this story: The Mother Land finally got their revenge for that whole Revolution thing.