Stunning trailer shows what Star Wars might have been

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It's near-impossible to escape the fact that Star Wars - The Last Jedi is nearly with us. However, 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.

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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, but 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 lots 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 yes, 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, with 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

You can find out more about the DAVE School here. Star Wars: The Last Jedi opens at midnight tonight.

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