Star Wars Holiday Special Documentary A Disturbance in the Force Gets Teaser Trailer

Whatever your preference might be when it comes to stories being told in the world of Star Wars, the undeniable outlier in the galaxy far, far away is 1978’s The Star Wars Holiday Special, the existence of which will be explored in the upcoming documentary A Disturbance in the Force. The new film will be premiering this month at the South by Southwest Film Festival, with the film earning an official teaser ahead of its premiere at the event. Check out the teaser for A Disturbance in the Force below before it premieres at South by Southwest on March 11th.

The film is described, “In 1977, Star Wars became a cultural phenomenon that single-handedly revitalized a stagnant film industry, and forever changed how films were sold, made, and marketed. Movies would never be the same again. A year later, neither would television. In 1978, CBS aired the two-hour Star Wars Holiday Special during the week of Thanksgiving and was watched by 13 million people. It never re-aired. While some fans of the franchise are aware of this dark secret, this bizarre two hours of television still remains relatively unknown among the general public. Simply put, we will answer how and why did the Holiday Special get made.”

Talent featured in the documentary includes Seth Green, Weird Al Yankovic, Taran Killam, Gilbert Gottfried, Bonnie Burton, Paul Scheer, Bruce Vilanch, Lenny Ripps, Donny Osmond, and Miki Herman. A Disturbance in the Force was directed by Jeremy Coon and Steve Kozak, who also serve as producers, as do Adam F. Goldberg and Kyle Newman.

While the Star Wars Holiday Special is baffling to some degree, it does make a lot of sense that it came to life in the first place. At the time of the release of Star Wars, no one had any idea how popular it would be and the global phenomenon it would become, with virtually every brand trying to get in on the excitement. Stars from the film made appearances on a wide variety of live projects, while the concept of variety specials that featured comedy sketches and musical acts was commonplace in that era. 

With George Lucas approving the Holiday Special, it wasn’t necessarily more outlandish than other variety specials, though in retrospect, its absurdity has been highlighted and Lucasfilm has essentially erased the event from existence, as it only aired once in 1978 and has never been released in any official capacity.

Stay tuned for details on A Disturbance in the Force.

Are you looking forward to the documentary? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!