Today is the Star Wars Celebration fan event in Anaheim, California—basically a Comic-Con Hall H presentation without Hall H—and JJ Abrams and the cast of Star Wars: The Force Awakens (or however that title officially goes) debuted a second teaser trailer. The movie doesn’t come out till Christmas, so we have plenty of time for full-blown plot-revealing trailers, but there’s a lot of new footage and information to digest.
Is there any movie music more beautiful and evocative than John Williams’ iconic Star Wars theme? (Maybe the Jaws theme—MAYBE.) The music plays, slow and dirge-like, as Luke Skywalker narrates about the Force. We see Darth Vader’s mangled helmet, a light saber exchanging hands, it’s all very portentous. But who is he talking to? John Boyega’s Stormtrooper Finn? Or Daisley Ridley’s salvager, Rey? They’re the leads, it would make sense for one—or both?—of them to be Luke’s protégé. Or could it be Oscar Isaac’s X-wing pilot, Poe Dameron (that is the MOST Star Wars name ever)? And we still don’t know who, exactly, Adam Driver, Lupita Nyong’o, and Gwendoline Christie are playing, although it’s rumored Christie is under the mask as the awesome chrome Stormtrooper.
So we still have a lot of questions about New New Star Wars. The only thing we know for sure is that Luke Skywalker is taking on the Yoda role of training a new Jedi, and Han Solo smiles for the first time in like, ever. And the tone is exactly right. Real locations, built sets, the BB-8 ball droid is a puppet and not CGI (!!!), and Abrams is promising lots of practical effects—I’m down with the look and feel of everything we’ve seen so far. I’m a little put off by the establishing shot of sand, I’m not going to lie, but as long as no one f*cking mentions it, I think we’ll be fine. You’re getting my hopes up, New New Star Wars. Please, PLEASE, don’t let me down.
