Mark Hamill Remembers When First Star Wars Trailer Was Heckled

While the Star Wars franchise may be celebrated by so many now, there used to be a time long, long ago when a trailer for Star Wars used to be met with criticism and ridicule.

Closing this year's Star Wars Celebration a couple of days after Lucasfilm dropped the highly-anticipated The Last Jedi teaser trailer, Mark Hamill shared with fans what it was like during the early days of the franchise. Remembering the time when he and late Star Wars co-star Carrie Fisher met up for lunch after the filming of the original 1977 film, Hamill shares the experience he had watching early audiences react to the original Star Wars trailer after he and Carrie passed by a nearby theater.

"We went in and we watched it," he told the audience. "It was so early they didn't have John Williams' score. They didn't have very many special effects finished at all. A couple of shots of TIE Fighters, I think. It made a real impression on me because we hadn't seen any of the footage."

"At the end of the trailer, it said, ‘A billion light years in the making. And it's coming to your galaxy this summer.' Big explosion. And somebody in the balcony yelled out, ‘Yeah, and it's coming to the late show about two weeks after that,'" he recalled. "Nobody enjoys a well-placed, snarky remark more than I do. So we both laughed, but after we laughed, we kind of went, ‘Uh-oh.'"

Fans already probably know that studios really didn't expect George Lucas' first Star Wars movie to kick off one of Hollywood's strongest franchises. The film was initially met with a lot of skepticism before its successful release.

However, decades after the original film's release, the Star Wars franchise remains stronger than ever with Lucasfilm planning out a decade and half of films to feed its massive fanbase.

The franchise's next film, Star Wars: The Last Jedi is scheduled to premiere on December 15, 2017.

The film features Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Domhnall Gleeson, Gwendoline Christie, Peter Mayhew, Andy Serkis, Anthony Daniels, Lupita Nyong'o Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Benicio Del Toro, Kelly Marie Tran, and Laura Dern.

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