After “Star Trek” ended its run in 1969, Edlund went on to make a few experimental short films, and it was this work that brought him to the attention of John Dykstra, who was initially appointed to supervise the effects for Lucas’ “Star Wars.” Edlund was hired to be the director of photography of the VFX unit for the film, thereby making him a key member of the effects house that ended up becoming known as Industrial Light & Magic.
After a brief sojourn with Dykstra on creating the very “Star Wars”-esque space battles for ABC’s “Battlestar Galactica,” Edlund became a regular member of ILM, not only working on “Star Wars” sequels “The Empire Strikes Back” (creating optical composites of miniatures against the white backgrounds of the snowy planet Hoth, a task well suited to the Companion’s creator) and “Return of the Jedi,” but also helping with “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “Poltergeist.” In late 1983, Edlund opened his own effects company, Boss Films, and their resumé reads like a who’s who of ’80s genre classics: “Ghostbusters,” “Fright Night,” “2010,” “Poltergeist II,” “Big Trouble in Little China,” “Die Hard,” and so on.
By the mid-1990s, Edlund was picking up the baton from his old cohorts at ILM, seeing their pioneering work on “Terminator 2” and “Jurassic Park” and making the steady transition from analog effects to computer generated imagery on films like “Alien 3” and “Species.” Edlund’s last credit as VFX supervisor is for 2015’s “Barely Lethal,” so it appears he’s effectively retired from the industry. One thing’s for sure: the landscape of film and television as we currently know it would look completely different were it not for Edlund’s work, which is why it’s so important that such work be acknowledged, honored, and preserved.