‘The Empire Strikes Back’ Gets A Gorgeous James Bond-Style Intro Featuring Radiohead

While the Star Wars films are now pretty much canonical required viewing to be a person living in this modern age, and at a time it was unthinkable to tinker around with them, George Lucas did his fair share of tinkering with the original Star Wars trilogy. That means that he opened up the gates for people to get creative with the films, as opposed to treating them like holy texts not to be disturbed. While the openings of Star Wars films are iconic, there has always been a part of me that has wondered if they could have been maybe a bit more interesting than blaring horns and scrolling text.

This video from designer Kurt Rauffler completely re-imagines the introduction to The Empire Strikes Back done in the style of the tremendous James Bond intros. While the James Bond films weren’t always the most artistic or visually arresting movies, the intro sequences were always beautiful and jaw-dropping in their own way. Rauffler took the artistic approach and feel of those iconic opening credits, overlaid with some Radiohead for good measure, and created a new, amazing intro for Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.

The subtlety of the video along with the music creates a perfect backdrop for the often bombastic action from the film. But is it too much? Was Star Wars ever meant to be this artistic? I’m really not sure.

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