Sci-fi fans got an unexpected holiday gift today, thanks to the online release of the official trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It has been a long wait for fans, with the feature film set to release next year.
Despite initial reports about issues with the screen and Disney wanting the movie earlier than J.J. Abrams and his crew would have preferred, the trailer managed to make its way to the Web Friday morning.
As a teaser, the 88-second video succeeds in doing exactly what it’s intended to do—tease viewers without giving away too much plot.
Actually, it delivers none of the storyline. But it somehow manages to offer some tantalizing bits anyway. Some cool things about this trailer:
- John Boyega! The black stormtrooper at the beginning starred in 2011’s excellent Attack the Block, and hopefully has a big role in this film.
- A rolling droid! Cool, I guess.
- There are X-Wings and TIE fighters in the trailer, so either there are some imperial forces still around, or the Empire was not totally defeated after Return of the Jedi. Or it could be a flashback scene, although that would be lame.
- The lightsaber of the (presumably) “dark sider” was designed to make you go “Whoa! A crossguard! This movie’s totally new and gonna rock my world!” But crossguards are supposed to protect your hand, and this one clearly has exposed machinery, which seems counter-productive to me. Then again, picking nits over a science fiction movie from Disney may not be the best use of my time.
- Lens flare at the 1:04 mark!
So the clip does a good job of giving fans plenty to chew over, without spoiling the story. That might sound like a pretty obvious description of a teaser trailer, but let’s take a gander at the one for Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.
If nothing else, at least we know one thing: We’ve come a long way in the of making trailers since 1999.
The Force Awakens is set roughly 30 years after 1983’s Return of the Jedi, the last Star Wars film, at least in the fictional universe’s chronological order. This installment will hit theaters on December 18, 2015.
Official photo from StarWars.com
