‘Entrenched’ The Star Wars Fan Film We’ve Been Waiting For

As a franchise, Star Wars is at something of a crossroads, with Disney canceling projects like Rian Johnson and Colin Trevorrow’s planned trilogies, a Jabba the Hutt film, Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron, a Kevin Feige Star Wars film, and the second season of the Disney+ streaming cult fan hit The Acolyte.

Many longtime Star Wars fans have lost faith in Disney due to concerns about the quality and direction of new content, a perceived decline in interest, and frustration with the handling of the franchise. To many, Star Wars films and its streaming series are seen as inferior to the pre-Disney universe.

_{Courtesy of Bad Beetle}

Recently, though, I discovered the teaser trailers for Star Wars Entrenched, while reading a Yahoo.com article that follows in the footsteps of Star Wars fan films like the live-action ‘Odyssey: A Star Wars Story‘ which I wrote about way back in 2018 over at StarwarsNewNet. Entrenched is another ambitious, small-team production that pays tribute to the original saga while pushing technical boundaries. It is designed to celebrate Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, and it moved me to tears; I realized this was the best Star Wars content I had seen in years. The Empire Strikes Back is praised for its strong visual effects, practical effects, and meticulous storytelling. Entrenched appears to be following in its innovative footprint. It’s more than your average short fan film; it is a passion project several months in the making and a love letter to one of the most iconic films in the history of cinema.

_{Courtesy of Bad Beetle}

As most passionate Star Wars fans already know, calling this a “fan film” severely undersells it. After all, sci-fi fan films usually devolve into a bunch of shoddy computer graphics and explorations of alien planets that invariably look like someone’s backyard. Fortunately, Entrenched has a surprising production quality, using new tech and AI that is changing filmmaking and tools once reserved for large studios. Interestly it has been made for less than $3,000 by a father and son duo working out of their garage. The Dowlings, the father and son duo, Navaz and Roman, founded Bad Beetle Entertainment as a way for Roman to explore filmmaking without the traditional route of film route. Together they used Lightcraft’s tech, an all we new collaborative filmmaking platform from Lightcraft Technology, which made its debut in August at Vancouver’s SIGGRAPH 2025.

_{Courtesy of Bad Beetle}

The 15-minute Star Wars short film Entrenched follows Rebel soldiers on the icy planet of Hoth, reimagining the famous battle sequence from the historic George Lucas film.

“We studied and learned as we went,” says Navaz. “There wasn’t a grand plan, just curiosity. Jetset gave us the freedom to build something that looked much bigger than what we had.”

With any luck, Disney will have the wisdom to realize that this free fan film is everything that audiences really want from a Star Wars film. It’s an immaculate love letter to the franchise that is driven by the themes of hope and redemption.

Star Wars fans have been begging Disney to reintroduce more material from the original trilogy for quite some time. Entrenched builds on a time, much like the novel Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire written by Steve Perry, that explores events closely attached to the Empire film.

“We didn’t set out to impress anyone,” says Navaz. “We just wanted to make something we loved. Everything else came after.”

_{Courtesy of Bad Beetle}

Overall, the trailer suggests that Entrenched will deliver the excitement viewers loved in the original Empire Strikes Back film while expanding the story in fresh directions. This release is worth marking on your calendar.

_{Courtesy of Bad Beetle}

Entrenched will finally stomp onto Bad Beetle’s Youtube site soon. In the meantime, you can check out the two recently released teaser trailers below…

Teaser 1