Universal Day of the Jedi – May 25

10 Years Ago Today: The Best April Fool’s Prank By The Official Star Wars Site

Happy April Fool’s Day! Well, the Official Star Wars site has always had nice April Fool’s gags, and this year’s is of no exception and is actually very elaborate. But ten years ago today, the official site did perhaps their best April Fool’s prank ever…

Consider the scene. It is 2001, and the fans are rabidly eating up any spoiler information they can for Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Many questions and speculations were being seriously considered. Are Sidious and Palpatine different people? Does Boss Nass have the opening line of the movie?

The official site was, of course, the first base stop for all news and spoilers. They had some great photo features, such as George Lucas Selects and Episode I Snapshot – on top of a feature where you could ask Lucasfilm staff anything you want. It was a pretty exciting time to be a Star Wars fan.

Well, on April 1, 2001, the crew behind Lucas Online launched their best gag ever. They completely redesigned the front page of the site, and turned it into what you see below. Be sure to click on the screenshot to see the whole site – yes, it is still active online:

I was blown away at the wonderful creativity the Lucas Online staff had when they put this online ten years ago, and it still remains my favorite to this day.

If you want to see 2011′s prank, click here to check it out.

[Source: The Official Star Wars Site]