The teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, better known as Episode VII, is hitting selected theaters on Friday. The teaser trailer will be dissected ad nauseum until the second, fuller trailer is released, and so on and so forth until the actual film is finally in theaters.
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We have a few rumors trickling in about just what we'll be seeing in the teaser for the J.J. Abrams directed installment. Badass Digest has a very convincing report on what we could be witnessing on the big screen. It's vague, but even the description is enough to send a nostalgic chill down your spine.
Currently, the 88 second Episode VII teaser exists in a Schrodinger's Cat-esque state of existence as being both amazing and terrible. It contains everything, and it contains nothing. It is what we've always waited for, and something we could live without.
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In a perfect world, of which this is decidedly not, here's what we can't wait to see this Friday either in theaters, or more likely, at home hiding under our bed covers.
5. Lucasfilm Logo - This, and the 20th Century Fox log, are chiseled into my mind with as being synonymous with Star Wars. Even to this day, whenever I hear the iconic Fox fanfare, I still get a little hopeful hat whatever movie I'm going to see is actually, in fact, Star Wars. It's Pavlovian and one of the few things I know for sure will have to be featured in the trailer. Sadly, since Disney bought Lucasfilm, we will no longer treated to the Fox fanfare. And the last film to sport the logo was 2012's Red Tails. It's time it gets put back where it belongs.
4. The new cast - I have god knows how many versions of Star Wars back at my house. Yes, I am excited to see the old cast members - Mark Hammil, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher - returning, but this isn't their film anymore. I specifically mention this because they could literally do a 90 second pan across a field of stars with the music playing and we'd call it the best thing ever. But show me John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, Max von Sydow and everyone. Focus on them, and then at the end...
3. Luke! Han! Leia! - The final shot before the credits should be one, if not all three, of the original cast members appearing right as the music swells. If you had to pick one, make it Han. And give him a one-liner or at the very least, that amazing smarmy grin Ford made famous back in the day. Or, Luke Skywalker, cast in shadow and all we see is the green glow of his light saber as it clicks on.
2. The music - it is generally accepted that the success of Star Wars is due in large part to John Williams' legendary score (just watch what it's like without the music). If someone says 'hum the Star Wars theme', chances are you could do it without a second thought. The music moves what is otherwise a pulpy, shallow story. The main fanfare will be making an appearance, the question is 'when'. Do they go bombastic all the way through, or do they build it slow, ending with a crescendo of 'ba da na!'
1. The Date - look, I know the movie is coming out next year. It even has an official date: December 18. That is a very real time set in the future and yet, it does not feel real. It will feel real when we see it on the big screen. The title also plays into the release date, too. 'The Force Awakens December 18th'.
There's not a thing I'm not looking forward to about this trailer (except for it ending, of course), but let's face it: it's Star Wars. No matter how many times we may get burned, we always end up coming back. It's mythic; hell, it's the myth. It's in our DNA.
Oh, and there are laser swords, Jedi knights, the Millennium Falcon and space derring-do. I hope the trailer has all of those (I can't imagine they woudn't). The Badass Digest scoop sounds believable, but hey, this trailer both exists and does not exist in my mind. For the moment, it can be whatever I want it to be. What won't be there in the trailer this Friday?
However, it would be great if they got Harrison Ford to narrate the whole thing, a la The Empire Strikes Back trailer:
