A Disturbance in the Force’ Sneak Peek Breaks Down “Lucasfilm 1.5”

The Big Picture

• A Disturbance in the Force, a documentary about The Star Wars Holiday Special, will be released on Digital on December 5.
• The documentary explores how the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special came to be.
• The legacy of The Star Wars Holiday Special continues to this day, with celebrations at Disney Parks, and an animated LEGO Star Wars special.

Life Day may be behind us now, but for those curious about — or fans of — The Star Wars Holiday Special, the party is still ongoing with the release of A Disturbance in the Force right around the corner. The documentary had its premiere at SXSW 2023, and screened in select US, UK, and Australian cities, and will finally be available on Digital on December 5. To celebrate the release, Collider is excited to exclusively share a clip from the film, featuring Jason Lenzi, Jonathan Rinzler, and Seth Green.

The clip features the contributors breaking down the era they refer to as “Lucasfilm 1.5,” that is to say the era between what we now call Episode IV: A New Hope and Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. The atmosphere was very different in a world where the entirety of Star Wars was contained to the 1977 film, before it had any sequels, or mythology, or a larger universe associated with it. As Rinzler puts it, the window between the two films — during which the infamous Holiday Special was made — is a unique insight for fans into the brief period before Star Wars as we know it was really set up.

Green goes on to speculate that The Star Wars Holiday Special could have been born out of spite, following a disastrous meeting between George Lucas and then-Warner Bros. President Frank Wells (who would eventually become president of the Walt Disney Company). According to Green, that meeting ended with Wells angrily predicting that Star Wars, and Lucas himself, would become irrelevant in a matter of months, driving the filmmaker to ensure his sci-fi hit succeeded at all costs.

The Legacy of ‘The Star Wars Holiday Special’

The Star Wars Holiday Special has achieved cult status in the 45 years since it premiered on CBS — airing once, and then never again. Nevertheless, the legacy of the special persists, and to this day fans celebrate November 17 (the original air date) as “Life Day,” the holiday celebrated by Chewbacca and family in the special, with Disney Parks even getting in on the fun with special events. On November 17, 2020, Disney+ also released the first of three animated LEGO Star Wars specials, titled LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special, which follows the characters of the Sequel Trilogy trying to throw together a Life Day celebration of their own.

A Disturbance in the Force arrives on digital platforms, DVD, and Blu-ray on December 5th, and can be pre-ordered on Apple TV now. Check out the official synopsis and trailer below:

From the filmmakers behind NAPOLEON DYNAMITE and RAIDERS! THE STORY OF THE GREATEST FAN FILM EVER MADE, comes A DISTURBANCE IN THE FORCE, the documentary about the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special. 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. In 1978, filmmaker George Lucas was talked into cashing in on the Star Wars craze by producing a holiday variety TV special. What could possibly go wrong? ANSWER: Everything…

CBS aired the two-hour “Star Wars Holiday Special” during the week of Thanksgiving and it 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, the documentary will answer how and why the “Holiday Special” got made.

Watch on Apple TV

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