Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Entertainment
  3. News

Hilarious trailer reimagines Star Wars: The Force Awakens by Wes Anderson

Ryan Waniata
By
Wes Anderson Presents: Star Wars Force Awakens Trailer
In film (and film trailers, of course) the final product is all about framing. The music, the editing, and even last-minute cinematography effects can bring the raw footage locked down on set to its natural conclusion — or in a completely different direction. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in the expanding world of mock trailers, especially this latest take on the Star Wars trailer from Jonah Feingold, cooked up in the signature style of Mr. Wes Anderson.
Recommended Videos

As one commenter points out in the YouTube comment section for Feingold’s post, Wes Anderson’s unmistakable style in movies like The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Darjeeling Limited, and so many others is ripe for parody; so much so that one could no doubt forge a richly packed channel on the site with nothing but regular movie trailers repainted with the brush of Anderson’s stylish camp and nostalgic soundtracks.

Related

But, turning this trick of the mock trailer trade to the iconic world of Star Wars seems to take even the standard Wes Anderson treatment to a whole new level.

The trailer begins with what has been framed by J.J. Abrams’ official trailer as a moment of panic: Jon Boyega’s character, Finn, emerges in the middle of a desert planet in a state of sweat-riddled mania. However, in Feingold’s Wes Anderson version, Finn’s panic is washed away by a dry snare beat and beach-style guitar. Soon after, a French singer enters the soundtrack, recalling both Anderson, and the great Quentin Tarantino.

The trailer continues with staggered freezes, which help draw out the camp, as does the striking yellow script and the Polaroids laid out against a plaid background. The entire melange is cut with dirty film spots and crackle, making the viewer feel as if we’re watching from a seat in a small pulp theater in some slow-to-gentrify side of town.

The overall result is something completely different, which is what makes the accessibility of  movie-making tools in today’s digital landscape so fun.

While Star Wars purists may not find what they’re looking for here, fans of both genres will no doubt enjoy the reimagining — after all, with six weeks left till The Force Awakens premiere, we need something to pass the time.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Ryan Waniata
Ryan Waniata
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Ryan Waniata is a multi-year veteran of the digital media industry, a lover of all things tech, audio, and TV, and a…
Wes Anderson’s Star Wars? All the AI Wes Anderson parodies, ranked
Darth Vader stands in a hallway in The Galactic Menagerie.

At this year's Cannes Film Festival, Wes Anderson just debuted his newest movie, Asteroid City. The acclaimed movie looks to be a typical Anderson project populated with eccentric characters, an all-star cast featuring Tom Hanks and Scarlett Johansson, and whimsical visuals. Asteroid City is sure to please audiences when it's released later this year, but it will also help fuel the latest trend that's sweeping the Internet: AI parodies.

With the rapid advancement of ChatGPT and AI-generating software like Midjourney, "regular folk" have taken these tools and applied their own creativity by utilizing the established works of artists such as Wes Anderson. The Anderson AI parodies are fun to look at but they also suggest a terrible trend of co-opting a director's distinct visual style and making something seem new while really being a fancy rip-off. Nevertheless, we rank all of the Moonrise Kingdom director's AI "tributes" and parodies, from the truly terrible to the surprisingly good.

Read more
Spotify celebrates Star Wars Day with soundtracks and audio books
The Mandalorian and Grogu in a poster for the Disney+ series.

In May 1977, the original Star Wars hit theaters and changed cinemas forever. And although the actual release date was May 25, 1977, fans have embraced May the Fourth as the annual Star Wars Day celebration (for obvious reasons). To celebrate this year's Star Wars Day, Spotify has something special in mind for music fans and audio book connoisseurs.

Composer John Williams' iconic Star Wars music from all nine of the main feature films is streaming under Spotify's Best of Star Wars Playlist alongside some more recent additions to the musical canon. That includes Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab's score for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, the hit video sequel that just hit stores at the end of April. Kevin Kiner's music from Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, and Star Wars: The Bad Batch is also featured, as is Michael Giacchino's powerful score from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Additionally, Spotify's Playlist for The Mandalorian now has Joseph Shirley's score from season 3 alongside Ludwig Göransson's soundtracks for the first two seasons.

Read more
Every time we’ve seen Order 66 in Star Wars movies, video games, and TV shows
Anakin marches to the Jedi temple in Revenge of the Sith.

Twenty years ago, if you asked a Star Wars fan to name the most pivotal moment in the franchise’s fictional history, you could be confident that they’d answer with the Battle of Yavin, the climax of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. After all, this event serves as the starting point of the official Star Wars calendar; fans and producers alike measure time in Star Wars in terms of years BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin) or years ABY (After the Battle of Yavin), endowing the destruction of the Death Star with a historical importance within the fictional galaxy that's equivalent to the birth of Christ. Though the BBY/ABY calendar is still in service today, the ever-expanding Star Wars continuity now revolves around a different moment of historical import: Order 66, the flashpoint of the Jedi Purge and the rebranding of the Galactic Republic into the Galactic Empire.
First depicted in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith in 2005, Order 66 has become the most revisited moment in the current Star Wars canon, and explored from a multitude of perspectives. Then-Supreme Chancellor Palpatine’s directive to execute the entire Jedi Order, from the ruling council to the youngest student, is now the inciting incident for Star Wars as we know it. Every character active in galactic affairs in the year 19 BBY has their own Order 66 story, and several of them have been depicted in film, television, and video games. Let's takea look back at each substantive on-screen portrayal of the Jedi Purge to determine what (if anything) each of them adds to our understanding of the tragedy and its repercussions on the Star Wars galaxy.

Revenge of the Sith shows the broad strokes of the Jedi Purge

Read more