It’s Black Friday here in the US, the day after Thanksgiving, during which we participate in the ritual sacrifice of holiday shoppers so that the old gods may be appeased and the winter will be a short one. Naturally, on a day dedicated to commerce and conspicuous consumption, Disney decided it was as good a time as any to premiere the first teaser for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. We’re a little over a year away from the movie opening in December 2015 and the hype machine is in full effect.
I’m not going to lie—the establishing shot of sand worried me. It’s always the motherf*cking sand with these movies! But then John Boyega pops up as a sweaty stormtrooper and I’m into it. This trailer is a perfect combination of old and new. We recognize so much right away—stormtroopers, X-wings (that look like actual X-wings, JJ Abrams is already better at revisiting Star Wars than George Lucas), TIE fighters, lightsabers, and the Millennium f*cking Falcon all appear while John Williams’s iconic theme plays. That’s the second time this week a Williams theme has been used to invoke nostalgia and it works every damn time.
But then there’s the new—a bouncy little droid that is almost but not quite like R2D2, and Boyega is joined by brief glimpses of Daisy Ridley as ???, Oscar Isaac as a Rebel pilot, and a mysterious figure with a red lightsaber…which means Sith. So, there are still stormtroopers, Rebels, and now the Sith are back. Apparently Luke, Leia, and Han’s victory wasn’t quite so complete.
We don’t see anything from the original Star Wars cast, but for now, that’s fine. The teaser successfully recalls the original trilogy without giving up any real plot details, and they can save the money shots of Luke, Leia, and Han for Comic-Con. At this point, they just need to get us excited about New New Star Wars, and they have done that, in spades. Also, is that Benedict Cumberbatch narrating? It really, REALLY sounds like Benedict Cumberbatch.
(Lainey: that Sith totally has Adam Driver’s body!)
