Buy a ticket and The Force can be with you
88-second Star Wars trailer to appear in selected theatres
Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens doesn’t come out for more than a year, but you can get a first look Friday when the 88-second teaser trailer is unveiled.
The catch? You’ll have to head to one of about 30 theatres to do it. The trailer won’t be on the Internet — at least, not legally — and it won’t air on television. Instead, you’re going to have to buy a ticket to Horrible Bosses 2 or Big Hero 6 or some other new release to get your amuse-bouche of a galaxy far, far away. In Canada, the trailer will screen only in Toronto and Vancouver.
Director J.J. Abrams announced the trailer Monday on Twitter, where he promised a “TINY” peek of what he and his team are working on.
Superfans are no doubt going to boost box-office numbers by buying tickets to movies just to watch the trailer. And yet, what are they expecting? The details of Episode VII have been very tightly held, even for an industry that carefully guards its secrets. More likely than not, the teaser will follow the usual formula, which means you’re going to get shots of action — maybe some storm troopers, a chase scene involving space ships moving at high velocity — and then brief glimpses of characters with worried expressions. Expect to see some of the newcomers (Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o) and old favourites — the slightly more weathered Luke, Leia and Han Solo, plus the ageless R2D2 and C-3PO. There will probably be evocative music riffing on the original score.
Episode VII isn’t the only trailer getting buzz. Jurassic World will air Thursday on NBC. So at least you don’t have to leave the house. The trailer’s release is primarily being talked about because of the release of a teaser trailer — yep, a trailer for the trailer — last Sunday night.
People were analyzing the snippets with care and proclaiming that director Colin Trevorrow’s take on the fourth movie in the dinosaur franchise was too much like the first. And that’s kind of a big leap, considering that, of the 20-second trailer, about seven seconds contained actual scenes from the movie. It was what you’d expect: shots of action — dinosaurs running alongside cars or standing beside bubble-like transport vehicles.