“68 LOST FILM REELS”: The Stunning Discovery That’s Shaking the Presley Legacy — Riley Keough Reveals Never-Before-Seen Elvis Footage
It began as a routine archival review deep within the vaults of Graceland, but what the team uncovered has now been called one of the most extraordinary finds in music history. Sixty-eight lost film reels, long thought to have vanished during studio transfers in the late 1960s, have been found and restored — revealing raw, unseen footage of Elvis Presley at the height of his artistry.
“When I saw it, it absolutely terrified me — in the best possible way,” confessed Riley Keough, Elvis’s granddaughter and current steward of the Presley estate. “It was like watching a ghost come alive — not in a haunting sense, but in a way that makes you realize just how human, how alive, he still feels through film.”
The reels, discovered in a mislabeled collection stored in a private MGM warehouse, date back to the period surrounding the legendary 1968 Comeback Special, a defining moment that reignited Elvis’s career and reshaped the history of rock and roll. What these newly recovered reels reveal, however, goes far beyond what the world saw on television.
The footage includes intimate rehearsals, studio banter, and unguarded moments of laughter between Elvis and his bandmates — scenes that capture not just the performer, but the man behind the legend. For the first time, fans will see Elvis off-script, discussing arrangements, cracking jokes, and, in one touching sequence, quietly playing a gospel tune to himself in a dimly lit corner of the soundstage.
According to those involved in the restoration, the film quality is astonishing. “The reels were remarkably well preserved,” said David Beavers, the project’s lead restoration specialist. “When we cleaned and digitized them, the color and clarity brought Elvis to life in a way that feels almost three-dimensional. It’s the closest anyone has ever come to being in the room with him.”
As Riley Keough and the restoration team sat together watching the newly recovered footage for the first time, emotions ran high. “There were tears, laughter, and long silences,” one team member shared. “Everyone in that room knew they were witnessing history — not just of a performer, but of a grandfather, a father, and a man rediscovering himself through music.”
The Presley estate has confirmed that the reels will be compiled into an upcoming documentary titled “Elvis: The Lost Reels — 68 Reimagined.” The film will combine remastered footage, newly recorded commentary from surviving crew members, and rare personal reflections from the Presley family. Early descriptions suggest the project will be “a visual time capsule — intimate, unfiltered, and deeply human.”
Riley herself described the experience as profoundly personal: “I’ve seen a lot of footage of my grandfather, but this was different. This was him — laughing, sweating, joking, trying to get it right. You could see the artist fighting for perfection, but also the person — kind, funny, full of energy. It made me miss him in a way I didn’t expect.”
Experts say the discovery of the 68 lost reels could reshape how the world remembers Elvis. Unlike the polished television special that aired in December 1968, these unedited recordings reveal the creative process — the doubts, the improvisation, and the spontaneous genius that defined him.
Fans are already calling it “the most important Elvis find of the century.” One lifelong admirer wrote, “We’ve seen The King perform. Now, we’ll finally get to meet the man.”
According to sources close to Graceland, plans are underway for a limited theatrical release followed by a streaming debut — along with a special exhibition at Graceland’s Presley Archives, where select frames will be displayed alongside the original cameras and handwritten notes used during the shoot.
In the words of Riley Keough, “It’s like finding his heartbeat again — through film, through music, through time itself.”
And for millions of fans across the world, that heartbeat — long silenced — is about to echo once more.