For some, Star Wars was never quite a sacred cow. Way back in 1977, the original film (before it was A New Hope) spawned a parody short that I’ve heard argued qualifies as the first fan film. Ernie Fosselius’ Hardware Wars did as much to inspire a generation as it source material did — a generation of film makers who realized they could do this, too. At least, they could do it for fun. The Last Jedi writer/director Rian Johnson clearly saw this short and loved it, as it’s given a visual nod in his film. So if you haven’t seen it (and thanks to Julie Shepard for pointing it out to me on YouTube), here’s Hardware Wars…
https://youtu.be/0ymFxkFfIhU
