Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens Trailer Lights up the Web

If I look at my Twitter feed right now, I have to scroll pretty damn far down to not see someone talking about Star Wars. I certainly can’t blame them. The second trailer for the film debuted today at the Star Wars Celebration fan festival in Anaheim and, like the rest of the Internet, I couldn’t be more excited. I’m not going to talk about my fandom, because almost everyone is a Star Wars fan, so that gets a little reduntant. I will, however, excitedly nerd out over this new trailer.

I suppose what I’m saying is that this article is my long-form tweet about the second trailer for Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens.

The first thing we see is a desert planet (that apparently is not Tatooine, according to Abrams) and the decades-old wreckage of an X-Wing in the foreground and the hulking, looming skeleton of a downed Star Destroyer taking up the background. Whereas the initial teaser for the film showed us all the “new” of Episode VII, this opening makes it clear that we’re returning to a series that we all knew and loved. The ghosts of the original trilogy are very much alive.

While the teaser that was released months gave us our first glimpses at some of the new characters – played by Rey, Finn, and Poe – this new trailer highlights the returning cast, though “highlight” may be too strong of a word. The trailer opens with Luke Skywalker talking about his family’s legacy with the force. When he says “My father had it,” we see a charred Darth Vader helmet. When he says “I have it,” we see a hooded figure reach out and lay a mechanical hand on R2-D2; that’s no doubt Luke. Finally, when he says “My sister has it. You have that power, too,” we see hands exchanging a lightsaber, which is presumably Leia handing off the weapon to a younger Skywalker. Then of course we actually see Han Solo and Chewbacca, in the flesh and the fur, to cap off the trailer. And for those of you complaining that Chewbacca hasn’t aged, keep in mind that Wookies live for centuries.

The rest of the trailer is just as exciting, if not more so, but is told in a series of flashes that leave us guessing as to what they could mean in the narrative. We see more thrilling X-Wing action and more of the (absurdly) controversial lightsaber. We see Finn, Rey, and BB8 running from an explosion. We get our first good glimpse at the new Sith, Kylo Ren, assumed to be Adam Driver. We see a whole squad of the new Stormtroopers on a snow planet standing in formation underneath a banner with a symbol that could be the new Imperial symbol. We see what looks like an “elite” Stormtrooper wearing chrome armor, then a similarly-dressed TIE fighter pilot. We see ships approaching a Star Destroyer, we see John Boyega’s Finn once again sweaty and exasperated in his Stormtrooper outfit. There is so much to love here.

We also see a TIE fighter hovering inside of what looks to be a Star Destroyer landing bay and opening fire on other Stormtroopers and docked TIE fighters. My immediate thought is that this goes along with the theory that John Boyega isn’t actually a Stormtrooper, but merely disguised as one, and maybe that’s him in the fighter.

Who knows, though? Aside from the trailers and the unavoidable tidbits (like character names), I’ve been trying to avoid unnecessary information on the film and I’m grateful that JJ Abrams is a man who appreciates his secrets. The next eight months are going to be absolutely excruciating. You have no doubt seen the trailer at this point, but it’s embedded below for your second, third, fourth, or fifth viewing. I’ve seen a few people complain about the Internet being suffocated with Star Ways hype, but right now the entire world is having a joyous, shared experience that stems from their childhood and if that doesn’t convey the awesome power of film, I don’t know what can.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ8IyH8t7AI