Meet Yoda, the AI-generated Jedi master.
A not-so-long time ago (this month) in a galaxy not so far, far away (You Tube), Star Wars films got reworked 1950s-style using artificial intelligence.
The result? Two vintage-looking Star Wars trailers, one for the original film and one for Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, that do a Jedi-like job capturing the lighting and muted color palette often seen in 1950s wide-screen trailers. The music sounds like something you’d hear in theaters back when movie tickets cost 50 cents. And the voiceover narration, written by ChatGPT, has the sharp enunciation and calibrated enthusiasm familiar to trailers of the mid 20th century.
“As the Rebel Alliance fights to free the galaxy from tyranny, they must face the might of the Empire and its fearsome army of Stormtroopers,” intones a punchy voice with a British accent. “Yet, amidst the turmoil, hope flickers like a distant star, as alliances are forged, friendships tested and the fate of the galaxy hangs in the balance.”
The retro-futuristic trailers come from Abandoned Films. It’s been posting footage to YouTube and Instagram for “movies that could have been,” all made with AI image- and video-generating tools like Midjourney and Runway and AI voice generator Eleven Labs. The account notes that it does some tweaking in Photoshop.
In addition to AI-generated characters who look a lot like the actors who played them, we get a number of novel-looking Star Wars icons. In the trailer for the original film, Luke Skywalker looks like a mix of Brad Pitt and Dancing with the Stars pro Derek Hough. We can see Darth Vader’s eyes through his helmet (they don’t look all that sinister). Yoda in thick blue goggles could give Baby Yoda a run in the cute-galactic-characters category.
AI tools often have a tough time generating realistic facial features and body movements, and in these trailers, the struggle is real. Han Solo’s left eyeball looks like it’s melting, as does Princess Leia’s; the fur on Chewbacca’s face can’t seem to figure out which way the wind is blowing; and people on the bustling streets of Curoscant don’t so much walk through the city as float.
Those AI quirks are part and parcel of experimenting with the technology, though, and they don’t seem to bother Star Wars fans who are praising the trailers’ aesthetic as well as the idea of Star Wars placed alongside I Love Lucy and Leave It To Beaver on the cultural timeline.
“Imagine being a kid in the ‘50s and seeing this for a trailer,” one YouTube commenter wrote. “Come on, I'm a grown-ass man in 2024 and I would LOVE to see an entire movie in this format.”
Wrote another: “It feels like a blend between some sort of strange dream and an alternate reality. Like, what if in a parallel world, George Lucas began production for Star Wars at an earlier time period before deciding on what the films are today? That’s so cool.”
Some of the imagery in the trailers looks like Ralph McQuarrie’s early concept art, with fans experiencing the footage as cozy, a journey back to a familiar and simpler time.
“This is like a warm, comforting blanket of sci-fi, and if it was made today in this style, it would be a roaring success,” one wrote.
Abandoned Films, which lists its location in Mexico, has posted a number of other 1950s-style trailers for sci-fi blockbusters. These include Alien, The Matrix, Dune, Tron, The Lord of the Rings and The Terminator, featuring a Sarah Connor who looks like she just walked out of a sock hop.
