Star Wars: The Phantom Menace broke the internet. Like subsequent motion pictures like Prometheus or Cats, the backlash to this feature took over the interwebs and forever changed how people talked about movies, for better and worse. Today, opinions on The Phantom Menace are a lot more nuanced, with an appreciation for its storytelling ambitions and its 35mm photography being increasingly easier to find online than another rant about Jar Jar Binks. However, there’s still no denying that The Phantom Menace is one of the weaker points in Star Wars history, especially when one focuses only on theatrical motion pictures.
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However, there’s also no denying that The Phantom Menace and the other two Star Wars prequels had some outstanding trailers. The franchise’s grand imagery really lends itself to striking trailers made up of out-of-context shots, as even later trailers for titles like The Rise of Skywalker can attest. The Phantom Menace’s original teaser trailer especially is a work of art that, decades later, still stands as the very best Star Wars trailer ever.
What Is The Phantom Menace Teaser?
Released back in November 1998, The Phantom Menace’s teaser trailer offered audiences their first glimpse at the Star Wars universe in a little over 15 years. This teaser begins on a grand mythic note, with on-screen text declaring things like “every generation has a legend” and “every journey has a first step.” In between these words, striking images fill the screen, like a wide shot of Padmé standing alone by a gigantic window, gazing at her Naboo home.
After the distant sound of Darth Vader’s breathing is heard, that famous Star Wars theme strikes up and the imagery immediately becomes more exciting. Suddenly, sequences like Anakin’s podrace and various lightsaber duels are the focus. Lengthy glimpses at familiar characters like Yoda and new faces like Darth Maul also dominate the second half of the trailer. There’s a grand ambiance to this whole teaser that deftly mixes the familiar with the promise of exciting new frontiers in Star Wars storytelling.
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Better yet, this visual-oriented Phantom Menace teaser sidesteps some of the film’s problems. Chiefly, the excessive expository dialogue that would become infamous in the final feature is absent here in favor of letting short bursts of dialogue and vivid action carry the day. Meanwhile, devoid of their later established personalities, brief glimpses of figures like Watto and the Gungans stimulate the imagination. In the context of this teaser, these fleetingly seen entities can be anything you want them to be. Plus, letting the teaser’s rhythm be dictated by John Williams music was an inspired choice. His compositions can make anything exciting.
The Greater Historical Feats of Phantom Menace’s Teaser
The Phantom Menace’s teaser is already a superb piece of work just on its own merits. However, delightful little flourishes associated with its debut back in November 1998 have only helped to enhance its reputation. Take, for instance, the tales about how scarce this trailer once was. Reportedly, this teaser was only shown on select theatrical screenings of movies like Meet Joe Black. In a pre-social media era dominated by dial-up, the big screen was the only place to really experience The Phantom Menace’s teaser. Folks would show up for Meet Joe Black just to watch the trailer and then leave.
Whatever movie came next, no matter how star-studded it was, was superfluous. All people really wanted was to see footage from a Star Wars movie on the big screen. Meanwhile, it’s important to consider how mind-blowing this teaser must’ve been in 1998 on many levels. Seeing characters like C-3PO and Yoda again couldn’t have been anything short of magnificent and soul-stirring. Then, there were the first glimpses of fully CG characters like Jar-Jar Binks and Sebulba strutting around live-action environments. Considering 1998 was the year Lost in Space delivered the digital abomination Blarp, the Phantom Menace teaser’s brief reveals of new CG figures must’ve been a revelation.
Most of all, though, The Phantom Menace’s teaser extracted a lot of emotional power from promising that it was the start of something new. Even though we all know how the Star Wars prequel journey went, there’s still something moving about returning to this teaser and gazing upon a trailer rife with potential. All these years later, The Phantom Menace teaser still beckons viewers to gather around and listen to its promises of exciting tales rich in origins for beloved mythic figures. The final film couldn’t live up to all that potential, but at least we’ll always have this extraordinary and surprisingly poignant teaser.
