Sunday Matinee: "Return of the Ewok," a bizarre Ewok promotional film from 1982

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In 1982, a 15-year-old Warwick Davis starred in a short promotional video about his tryout for Return of the Jedi. This comic oddity, Return of the Ewok, was never released and featured Boba Fett and Darth Vader hunting Wicket.

Given that the mockumentary was scrapped in post-production, copies of Return of the Ewok are incredibly rare, and Davis was long thought to be the only person to own a copy. Since then, numerous bootlegs and official clips of footage have surfaced, including the below video, which is a patchwork version of the many editions of Return of the Ewok that have been leaked over the years.

The movie starts off slow, but picks up when Davis dons the Ewok costume. He proceeds to wander around the set of Return of the Jedi at Elstree Studios, perplexing the heck out of Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher. The best segments are when Darth Vader and Boba Fett decide to kill Davis on his quest to try out for The Muppet Show and when we see the Ewok meet other like puppets Yoda (voiced by Frank Oz, of course) and Salacious B. Crumb. It's a weird little curio, and it's kind of hilarious to see an Ewok running through the Imperial throne room and Jabba's palace.

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Thanks, Søren!