A Stormtrooper faces down murder Ewoks in this chilling Star Wars fan film

Star Wars Day happened earlier this week, but we’re still feeling the Star Wars spirit. In honor of that, if you have six minutes to spare today, we recommend you use them to watch Kevin T. Custer’s wonderful fan-film, Alone, which acts as a direct sequel to Return of the Jedi and follows a lone Stormtrooper coming to terms with the destruction of the Empire while trying to evade Ewoks.

This fan film does a fantastic job of exploring the other side of the war after the Imperial Soldiers suffered defeat in the Battle of Endor, resulting in the fall of the Galactic Empire and the destruction of the second Death Star.

I think it was great to see such a different tone than we’re used to in Star Wars movies. It’s very dark and plays with empathy really well. We feel the pain of TK-1138 (James Shi) as he gradually learns more about the magnitude of the loss from “the voice” in his ear. As he’s waiting on being rescued, he finds out that there are many Ewoks surrounding him, and despite how cute they are, they are definitely brutal.

After avoiding Ewoks at every turn, the Stormtrooper learns that he cannot escape. After suffering some blood loss, he drops his helmet in defeat. At this point, any rescue mission would prove futile. While running for his life, he finds another Stormtrooper, but he is being eaten by an Ewok. In anger, TK-1138 shoots the Ewok as the film ends. No happy endings here!

Speaking to Syfy Wire, writer Kevin T. Kuster talked about his motivation for making this short film. “The celebration scene at the end of RoTJ is what helped ignite the idea that this isn’t a celebration for everyone,”  he explained. “What happened to the Imperials whose helmets are now being used as drums? I got excited about the idea of diving into the bad guys’ point of view with that idea in mind.”

And then there’s the mysterious voice (Jon Leyden) in the main character’s head. “Thematically I really wanted to play around with it a bit given 1138’s isolation and point of view,” Kuster said. “It’s completely reasonable and safe for him to assume it’s another Stormtrooper, an Imperial Radio Tech etc.” But all might not be as it seems.

"What if it’s a Rebel soldier toying with him? What if it’s paranoia, heavy blood loss, and survival instinct setting in?"

Custer was also particular about choosing the Ewoks as the enemy in the film. “I think we’ve all seen these movies so many times, that we sort of gloss over some beats and jokes in the films,” he said. “But don’t forget, they were gonna roast Han, Luke and Chewy! The chieftain is wearing bones!”

Bring back murder Ewoks.

This is one of the finest Star Wars fan films I’ve seen out of the many that are available on YouTube. It tells a chilling story from a perspective we rarely get.

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