With the Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens trailer dropping this weekend, I’ve been dwelling on my favourite franchise of all time non-stop. You’re able to catch the trailer in Darran’s article here, but I thought I’d take a bit of a closer look and share some thoughts on what’s been revealed in JJ’s continuation of the series.
The trailer opens up on some very Tatooine looking landscape, given JJ’s efforts to recapture the spirit of the original trilogy in his approach, Tatooine seems a good bet. That said, presumably there are other desert planets in the Star Wars universe!
The opening dialogue refers to an awakening in the force, could it be there’s some kind of shift, or change in the nature of the force itself? The prequel films hinted at this sort of thing through its prophecy of returning balance to the force, and a metaphysical mystery seems right up JJ’s alley.
Soon we see John Boyega in Storm Trooper armour and looking distressed, the armour alone indicates the Empire still exists in the galaxy in some form despite the events of Return of the Jedi, and then the familiar sound of an Imperial Probe Droid transmission can be heard.
After a quick look at a rolling droid racing across a similar looking planet to where we saw John Boyega, there’s another few snippets of fully armoured Storm Troopers in what seems like a drop ship carrying out a combat insertion. These troopers look slick, and somewhat more menacing than what we’ve seen before. The new helmets balance an homage to what’s come before and a slick new future quite effectively.
Following the troopers we get a quick look at Daisy Ridley’s character, back on what appears to be that desert planet from before, looking fearful as she powers up her odd looking land speeder and races off. What’s interesting about this shot in the trailer is that Daisy’s character appears to have a lightsabre hilt strapped to the side of the land speeder, which links back to previous rumours that she’s playing Han and Leia’s daughter, and would naturally be force sensitive.
The music kicks up a notch and Oscar Isaac is revealed in the cockpit of the new X-Wing, he’s also sporting a uniform that brandishes the rebel symbol from the classic trilogy. Does the rebel alliance still exist or has the symbol become a representation of a new republic? These questions are quickly forgotten as the awesome shot of X-Wings skimming close to a watery surface is revealed!
Next up we see who is presumably a sith or otherwise dark jedi in the film, a hooded figure limping for some reason through a snowy forest environment, the big reveal here of course being the light sabre complete with cross guard and a light sabre blade that looks different to any we’ve seen before. The blade itself looks more like flame and isn’t at all the constant smooth energy blade we’ve always seen depicted in the films. Could this sabre be faulty? A new design? Interestingly sabres with a cross guard have appeared in the now erased expanded universe before, specifically some of the dark horse pre-quel era comics.
Then the cream of the trailer, an energetic shot of the Millenium Falcon in evasive manoeuvres above desert terrain engaging at least two TIE Fighters with classic Star Wars music playing. This was a brilliant way to end the trailer, tapping into that original trilogy nostalgia without really revealing anything new given it’d already been confirmed that the Falcon would be appearing.
So no glimpses of Han, Leia, or Luke, and certainly lots of action on Tatooine or other similarly looking planets (but seriously what are the odds of it not being Tatooine), but overall a pretty compelling trailer with a few hints to unleash speculation until further details are revealed in time.
December 2015 can’t come fast enough.
