The Force awakens in Tatooine
Where else to kick off a new Star Wars trilogy than the home world of Luke and Anakin Skywalker, the desert planet which features heavily in both 1977’s Star Wars and (sorry) 1999’s The Phantom Menace? Persistent Force Awakens rumours have suggested the storyline for JJ Abrams’ movie concerns two young adventurers (played by John Boyega and Daisy Ridley) from Tatooine who begin their journey amongst the sand dunes before heading off in search of our heroes from the original trilogy, Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo. So far, so spot on.
Max Von Sydow knows his Force
Do we detect a Swedish lilt discussing the return of the Force in the manner of Obi Wan Kenobi? If so, we have to assume he’s playing a Sith, a Jedi or perhaps one of the new Inquisitor baddies that were recently introduced in spin-off TV show Star Wars Rebels. It’s an unbroken Star Wars rule (at least in the original trilogy) that only characters skilled in the use of the Force ever discuss it in any kind of detail. One rumour is that Von Sydow plays an Imperial leader who has stepped into the power vacuum left by the demise of Emperor Palpatine.
John Boyega is indeed a Stormtrooper
Here’s another rumour apparently confirmed, that the British star of Attack the Block plays an Imperial Stormtrooper turned to the good side of the force (or at least with Rebel sympathies). And there he is, centre stage in the first few seconds of the trailer. Could this be a typical Abrams curveball? After all, the first time Luke met Leia it was in the guise of a diminutive member of the Empire’s ivory-suited clone-based army. Does this revelation torpedo the rumour that The Force Awakens opens with a severed robot hand (possibly belonging to Luke Skywalker) tumbling from space?
Lightsabers have had a makeover …
The Phantom Menace (again, sorry) gave us the double-edged lightsaber, and Samuel L Jackson got a purple job in Attack of the Clones. The new teaser shows a shadowy, cloaked figure wielding a crucifix-effect number. Whether this innovation has any particular purpose will no doubt be revealed, but it suggests Abrams already has the confidence to tinker with canonical furniture that would once have been the exclusive preserve of Lucas. As radical shifts go, it’s a whole lot better than retrofitting Jabba the Hutt with the ability to perambulate.
… and R2-D2 could be in need of one
While the original Star Wars trilogy took place in a time of struggle, with a once-prosperous society devolved into chaos and division, it still seems remarkable that the future of the galaxy was entrusted on more than once occasion to a trundling tin can and his garrulous golden sidekick. The new teaser offers a glimpse of the next generation of droids, who seem to have taken a leaf out of the Back to the Future book. Where The Force Awakens is going, they don’t need wheels, and indeed this is exactly the kind of outdated tech that could cause extreme traffic chaos on planets where the nearest thing to a road is a flattened sand dune. Still, R2’s going to look like a Morris Minor in a Formula One race when he eventually turns up. Can this be a good thing?
Oscar Isaac’s X-Wing pilot may not be long for this galaxy
The trailer’s brief glimpse of the Inside Llewyn Davis actor shot face first in the new, upgraded X-Wing is enough to get the hairs standing up on the back of any self-respecting Star Wars fan’s neck. But might this mean Isaac is only getting a bit-part as an airborne Rebel grunt? Apart from Luke Skywalker himself, X-Wing pilots were Star Wars’ equivalent of Star Trek’s red-shirted engineering corps, cannon fodder who were always getting killed off by Imperial forces just as they thought they might have a chance of blowing up the Death Star. Then again, this is a Star Wars universe in which a Stormtrooper looks set to play a vital role: what price that an X-Wing pilot could also be set to move centre stage?
The Millennium Falcon can still make the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs
It’s already been caught on camera by over-zealous pilots taking a day trip over Pinewood Studios, but the teaser trailer offers proof that the Star Wars universe’s most iconic spacecraft is about to get its first run out since Return of the Jedi. And she’s still looking pretty zippy. Is that Han Solo in the cockpit, excusing himself from culpability for yet another failure to jump to light speed as he fends off Imperial fire?
Reports of the death of CGI have been greatly exaggerated
Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy is not the only Star Wars head honcho to have talked up a return to the use of real sets and models, rather than the over-reliance on CGI which pretty much ruined the prequel trilogy, for The Force Awakens. Still, don’t try to tell me that droid wasn’t born on a computer, or that the Falcon doesn’t look suspiciously shiny. Not that there’s anything wrong with that: most Star Wars fans have no problem with digital effects being used sparingly in combination with more realistic techniques, they just don’t want to see appalling computer game aliens parachuted incongruously into non-digital scenes (as with the remastered versions of the original trilogy). There’s a balance to be struck here: too little CGI, and The Force Awakens might take on a depressingly retro vibe. Too much, and the knives will be out for Star Wars’ new boss man chief. But at first glance, Abrams looks like he can be trusted to get it right.
