On November 24, 1985, American TV audiences tuned into ABC expecting a cozy Sunday-night Star Wars adventure…and instead got one of the darkest openings in Star Wars history. Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, the second of the made-for-TV Ewok movies, aired 39 years ago today — and if you haven’t revisited it in a while, you may have forgotten just how dramatically unhinged it is. Cute teddy bears? Yes.Family-friendly? In theory.Traumatizing? Absolutely. Let’s take a trip back to this very odd corner of Star Wars canon. A Sequel That Pulls Zero Punches The story picks up right after Caravan of Courage, following young Cindel Towani (Aubree Miller) as she and her family continue to survive on the forest moon of Endor. …for about ten minutes. Because in one of the most surprising tonal shifts ever approved by Lucasfilm, the entire Towani family except Cindel is killed early in the film….
