In case you hadn’t noticed, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace is 25 this year. It’s been on the cover of Empire. There have been Episode I LEGO sets ahoy. The film itself returned to cinemas for May The Fourth. But another treat has arrived to mark the occasion – Sunday 19 May was, officially, the anniversary; and so, as a little bonus, the good people at Lucasfilm uploaded a newly-remastered 4K version of the iconic Episode I trailer, re-scanned from the original 35mm negative. Give it a watch here:
Chances are, this is a trailer you’ve seen plenty of times. It is, in its own right, a piece of Star Wars history – the first glimpse fans had to George Lucas’ long-awaited prequel trilogy. The trailer’s arrival in cinemas had people flocking to the multiplexes; in the early days of the internet, those with the right bandwidth spent hours waiting for this clip to load in the smallest formats possible. And now, it looks better than ever, scrubbed up and still as thrilling as ever. When the podrace kicks in? Pure magic. And, as Lucasfilm’s LeAndre Thomas points out, the negative used was from so early in the promotion cycle that the title The Phantom Menace wasn’t even used yet.
If you missed The Phantom Menace in cinemas at the start of the month, you can of course watch it – and the rest of the Star Wars saga – on Disney+. And for your next hit of all-new tales in the galaxy far, far away, The Acolyte (set 100 years prior to The Phantom Menace) begins streaming on 4 June (or, early hours of 5 June in the UK). May the force be with you.