The Empire Strikes Back, arguable the best of the Star Wars movies is forty years old and new footage from filming has just been released

Good Morning America has been given some previously unseen footage as a Christmas gift by the Lucasfilm elves. There’s a whole 6:53 of material showing bloopers and behind the scenes footage. The bulk of this has never been seen publicly before.

In 1979, cameras captured Mark Hamill and the crew on location in Finse, Norway,—doubling as the planet Hoth— during a major snowstorm that hampered the production. Wearing a blue crew jacket with a name tag that reads “HEY YOU,” Hamill jokingly invents the Tautaun Dance, named after the planet’s furry lizards.

“Three steps like this, and then you fall over,” Hamill says with a laugh.

In an unused scene set inside the Rebel hangar on Hoth, Princess Leia asks Han Solo if the Millennium Falcon is having problems.

The footage includes a mix of new and archival interviews with Star Wars creator George Lucas, Hamill, Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian) and co-screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan. Geroge Lucas had this to say:

“Everybody is more enthusiastic than they were the first time. The first time, everyone was very confused by the whole thing and didn’t know what they were up against. Now they had a better picture of what it was we were making. It was fun to get started again.”

You can see the Empire Strikes Back footage on the Good Morning America site here. The poster image is by Matt Ferguson and can be found on the Star Wars website: EMPIRE AT 40 | MATT FERGUSON DISCUSSES THE MAKING OF HIS INCREDIBLE STAR WARS: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK POSTER.