This isn't the Star Wars you're looking for – see how VFX students have brought Ralph McQuarrie's concept art to life.
Star Wars - The Last Jedi took the box offices by storm last year, but it would be a very different film if the original Star Wars had stayed loyal to earlier drafts of George Lucas' script, and to Ralph McQuarrie's beautiful concept art and poster designs.
Early versions of the Star Wars script featured such crazy notions as a Han Solo with green skin and gills, stormtroopers with lightsabers and, instead of Luke Skywalker, a heroine called Luka Starkiller. Imagine that!
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...
Thankfully you don't have to imagine it any longer (well, except for the green Han Solo – you'll have to carry on imagining that). As for the rest, you're in luck: students at the DAVE School decided to bring an earlier version of Star Wars to life, and they've made a properly amazing concept trailer for The Star Wars, as the film was originally called.
Stormtroopers with lightsabers. What is the world coming to?
Based on McQuarrie's art and an earlier script than the one that was used, it's an impressive piece of work that'll be familiar to you in many ways, and jarringly weird in plenty of other ways. C-3PO and R2-D2 are there, sort of, there's a Darth Vader, X-Wings, TIE Fighters and a Death Star, but there's also a lot that didn't make the final cut.
This scene looks familiar, only, you know, not quite
So here there's a bearded, lightsaber-wielding Han Solo, a pointy-eared, monkey-like Chewbacca. And instead of Luke Skywalker, we have Luka Starkiller who, we reckon, bears more than a little resemblance to Rey from the more recent Star Wars canon.
Bearded Han definitely shoots first
It's a short but sweet piece of work with incredible attention to detail, and plenty of shots that are painstaking recreations of Ralph McQuarrie's concept art. Let's just hope no one gets carried away and tries to get a full-length version made, because we can guarantee it would be terrible.
He looks a bit weird, but this is still clearly Darth Vader
Jim McCauley is a writer, performer and cat-wrangler who started writing professionally way back in 1995 on PC Format magazine, and has been covering technology-related subjects ever since, whether it's hardware, software or videogames. A chance call in 2005 led to Jim taking charge of Computer Arts' website and developing an interest in the world of graphic design, and eventually led to a move over to the freshly-launched Creative Bloq in 2012. Jim now works as a freelance writer for sites including Creative Bloq, T3 and PetsRadar, specialising in design, technology, wellness and cats, while doing the occasional pantomime and street performance in Bath and designing posters for a local drama group on the side.
