It’s still a year away, but Disney has released an 88-second teaser trailer for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. There’s no shot of Jar Jar Binks Han, Luke, or Leia. No wookie’s roar or a golden droid’s “Oh my!” But there’s the Millennium Falcon in a dog-fight with TIE Fighters over the sand dunes of Tatooine! X-Wings piloted by rebel scum zooming over water. A soccer-ball droid who will surely get kicked around at some point in the movie. And three new characters: John Boyega, who’s the right height for a Stormtrooper; Daisy Ridley, driving something you wouldn’t want to get hit by and looking very much like Natalie Portman’s granddaughter; and Adam Driver bringing the Dark Side of the Force back with a very impractical but wicked looking lightsaber (a little religious symbolism going on there?).
Episode VII is directed by JJ Abrams, who recently rebooted the Star Trek franchise. Many Trekkies weren’t happy with his reimagining of their beloved Captain James T. Kirk, and this has caused trepidation in the Star Wars community. However, Abrams himself admitted he was never really a big Star Trek fan; and to me, Star Trek: Into Darkness, felt like a dress rehearsal for Star Wars. Khan and Spock’s fight on top of the moving barges could be a Jedi fight, sans lightsabers. Then there was Kirk dodging Klingons in a suspiciously Millennium Falcon-shaped ship. And last, but not least, the R2D2 easter egg. ST:ID certainly felt like an audition to direct a Star Wars movie! I like Abrams, his Spielberg-ET homage Super 8 was an underrated movie, and he’s a genuine Star Wars geek. I can’t wait to see him rejuvenate the Star Wars universe.
Post your thoughts (and bad feeling about this) below. When the trailer ended with the John Williams score, I felt like partying like an Ewok with bonfires and fireworks. December 2015 can’t come soon enough! Incidentally, last week I had a very vivid dream I was watching scenes from the new Star Wars movie. An ageing Han Solo was visiting the Millennium Falcon for the last time, telling another person, “She’ll never fly again.” I’m glad this is a dream that didn’t come true! Now excuse me, this scruffy looking nerf herder is going to watch the teaser trailer for the 88th time.
May the Force be with you.
