All the Star Wars flicks pretty famously follow the “Hero’s Journey” storytelling format: Hero is bored in the ordinary world, receives a challenge, hesitates, takes it, and then boom! Adventure ensues.
That’s not to say they’re straight-up copies of each other, but over time—even across three decades—it’s safe to say there are patterns. With this new trailer, YouTuber The Unusual Suspect has pretty much nailed why fans seem to expect the new Last Jedi will (sort of) be at least an echo of The Empire Strikes Back. Go ahead and watch the Last Jedi‘s actual trailer below to compare.
Watching them side by side, they don’t follow in lockstep with each other, but the recut Empire trailer makes its point about how these movies might end up being similar, at least.
Here’s the thing about Empire, though—over time old school fans and new have tended to agree it was the best of the first trilogy of Star Wars movies. Here’s the original trailer in all its early-’80s glory.
If that’s true of The Last Jedi, we’re in for one hell of a ride when it premieres in theaters on December 15.