The reason I originally started writing Trailer Talks was because I liked to analyse film trailers as marketing tools (because that is what they actually are) and not just look at them through the same lens as others (who use them for reaction or easter egg articles and videos). I wanted to look at the trailers I watched more analytically and see how they effected my inclination towards the film they were trying to sell me. Some trailers weaponize hype, others present different and interesting ideas for you to become intrigued by, others will give you a mystery, horror film trailers really want to scare or make you uneasy. Some trailers, for particular kinds of films, are able to weaponize the greatest money-making emotion that we have seen in the past decade; nostalgia. If your film comes with in-built nostalgia… you are set! Studios will throw money at you all day long. The greatest proponent of nostalgia currently is Disney, with their live-action remakes, new streaming service full of classics, and, of course, Star Wars.
Now I am nowhere near the first to entertain these ideas. My inspiration for this article came from two places. The first is YouTuber Patrick (H) Willems.
Two weeks ago, Patrick posted a video titled ‘How STAR WARS Trailers Weaponize Nostalgia.’ It’s a fantastic video and well worth watching if you are interested in this concept at all. In the video, Patrick analyses the ways in which the trailers for the current trilogy of Star Wars films weaponize and use nostalgia to elicit various emotional reactions, to sell the film and even ease the transition between the generations within the story. The second inspiration for this article came from another YouTube channel: the official Star Wars channel. Recently, YouTube decided to recommend to me the channel’s latest video.
Of course, me being a massive Star Wars nerd, I clicked on it. While watching the video, I found myself unable to stop thinking about the concepts Patrick had spoken about and the overall concept of weaponizing nostalgia. This featurette was able to suck me in and make me feel like a kid again. Seeing old footage, hearing the creators and actors speak about Star Wars as a whole, and hearing the pitch-perfect score, I felt my heart glow with warmth. The featurette is structured with the original faces of the franchise at the beginning, slowly transitioning into the new faces, much like a passing of the guard. This is nothing new in the official trailers, but this isn’t a trailer, and I was intrigued to find how even a featurette was created in the same manner. Scanning through the Star Wars channel, I found that there were a few more similar style videos had already been posted over the previous few days – of course, I watched these too.
As of writing there are currently three videos that fall into the category of featurette, the previous one we have spoken about, one focused around the creation of the Stormtrooper, and one ‘special look’. These three videos are all three to seven minutes long and appear to be the sort of thing that would usually be reserved for physical media releases, locked behind a menu tab titled ‘Special Features’. Upon closer inspection, we can see that all of these videos are similarly structured, following an almost identical format as the trailers. Again, these features have been constructed to use nostalgia to ease you into the new changes that the films are making, including the feature that is the least like the others ‘Star Wars | The Evolution of the Stormtrooper.’
While this feature feels the most like a special feature production (by actually delving into the designs and thought process behind decision making it has still been used and structured), easing the audience into the concept of change. The whole point of this featurette was to make frail audiences feel comforted that Stormtroopers have changed before, and there will be more change for them coming in The Rise of Skywalker. This has a dual purpose; it will make the hardcore fans feel more comfortable with upgrades, while also allowing room to sell a truckload of merchandise.
Taking a look at the final feature, ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker | Special Look,’ we can see the same pattern emerges yet again. When you couple these three together, it’s not difficult to imagine that the studio has decided to throw together a series of almost pre-special features to use exclusively as marketing material. To make matters more suspicious, the titles of the features, minus the Stormtrooper one, really have nothing to do with their content. There is no real special look into The Rise of Skywalker in the following video.
This feature is really about the cultural impact of Star Wars as a whole, and how it has affected the lives of those involved in, and those who consume, the property. It’s a tightly-edited collage of past and current snippets from pop culture, including interview clips and behind the scenes footage. The feature has almost nothing to do with the new film; it is almost entirely nostalgia bait. A genius, but slightly deceptive move.
With these three features those in charge of marketing over at Disney/Lucasfilm have found a further way to engage and elicit an emotional response from their more hardcore audience, especially audience members who they know may be a little disappointed by the current state of the franchise. However, these fans (myself included) will still click on every official video that is released. These features are a nostalgia drip-feed that eases into the new generation to soften the blow for any disgruntled fans. Although they feature barely any new content, they continue to fit the well-worn trailer pattern perfectly. It may be devious, but do I feel fooled? Slightly, yes. Am I angry about that? Well, no. The features aren’t being completely honest about what they are but, they do contain some fun content. As a Star Wars fan, I enjoyed watching them. Even though I know what they are doing, this kind of marketing still works on me, because Star Wars truly is the champion of weaponizing nostalgia.
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