It seems like a long time ago, albeit in our very own galaxy, that Disney announced a new series of Star Wars movies that would follow the events of the original, classic motion picture trilogy. But the wait is nearly over: fans got their first look at a full-length trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens at the Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim, CA this morning, and it only took seconds for that trailer to be released online, to the world at large.
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What we are treated to is a mighty tease, in the tradition of every J.J. Abrams movie that came before it. Impressive imagery, lines of dialogue that make lots of promises, but no concrete information about the actual plot of the film, and what audiences can really expect. Except, of course, that the original cast has returned. In the trailer’s final moments, Han Solo and Chewbacca appear, and Harrison Ford says, “Chewie… We’re home.”
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Even those of us who aren’t the biggest Star Wars fans in the universe are likely to get chills at that moment, or at the moment when an unseen character picks up the crushed, scorched helmet of Darth Vader. Even the opening shot of the trailer, showing a giant crashed spaceship and then revealing and enormous crashed Star Destroyer behind it, evokes the glorious opening shot of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. (And the dialogue directly quoting the original trilogy has obviously been designed to stir the emotions as well, but who wouldn’t pick up on that?)
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What has the cast been up to? Is the image above really Luke Skywalker, and if so, where has he been up to in the 30 years since the events of Return of the Jedi, with R2-D2 by his side? Who are these new cast members? We know some of their names, but not what they mean to the story that fans have been devouring for decades.
We’ll find out more as the months go on, but we expect that J.J. Abrams and Disney are keeping a lot of surprises under their hats for the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens on December 25, 2015.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast and The Blue Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
