Star Wars Holiday Special Documentary Sets December Release — Watch Trailer, You Will

Matt Webb Mitovich
·2 min read
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Star Wars fans will truly get to feel A Disturbance in the Force when a documentary about the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special — which debuted 45 years ago today, on CBS — is released.

Having premiered back in March at the SXSW Film Festival, A Disturbance in the Force will be released on digital and Blu-ray on Tuesday, Dec. 5, our sister site Variety reports. The 86-minute docu will also play in select theaters across the U.S. ahead of its digital release.

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Ostensibly set between the events of the original Star Wars film and its first sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, the Star Wars Holiday Special revolved around Chewbacca (played by Peter Mayhew) and Han Solo’s (Harrison Ford) attempt to travel to the Wookiee home planet of Kashyyk in time for a Life Day celebration. Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels and James Earl Jones also reprised their big-screen roles, of Luke, Leia, C-3PO and the voice of Darth Vader.

Diahann Carroll, Art Carney, Harvey Korman and Bea Arthur guest-starred as new denizens of the Star Wars universe, and an animated segment (available in full on Disney+!) marked the debut of bounty hunter Boba Fett.

The documentary A Disturbance in the Force, directed by Jeremy Coon (Napoleon Dynamite, Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made) and Steve Kozak (Whose Line Is It Anyway?), invites fans to “Travel back to a galaxy far, far away,” to when the Star Wars Holiday Special made its original — and pretty much only! — round, quickly and shamelessly capitalizing on the nascent sci-fi franchise’s success. “Dive into the mystery of how [the TV special] happened and why 45 years later it has become, much to the chagrin of George Lucas, the ultimate cult classic among Star Wars fans.”

The docu also counts Adam F. Goldberg (The Goldbergs) and Kyle Newman (Fanboys) as producers, and features talking heads such as Seth Green, Weird Al Yankovic, Taran Killam, Gilbert Gottfried, Bonnie Burton, Paul Scheer, Bruce Vilanch, Lenny Ripps, Donny Osmond and Miki Herman.

The clips in the trailer featuring Donny and Marie Osmond and dancing Imperial troopers are not from the Star Wars Holiday Special, but a 1977 variety series starring the Osmonds. I have to reckon that precious few if any clips from the actual Star Wars Holiday Special were approved for use in the docu.

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