New Star Wars teaser features stars from original trilogy,
Familiar characters are back for The Force Awakens trailer, including Han Solo and Chewy
It’s a family reunion, an almost complete one, as the second teaser trailer arrives for the new Star Wars film.
This latest peek at The Force Awakens, due in theatres Dec. 18, features many of the major cast members of the original Star Wars trilogy, who are returning for this seventh film in the sci-fi franchise.
Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher are all present, or at least seem to be, although only Ford is seen full-on. The trailer, released Thursday at a California fan convention and now available online, also provides glimpses of two loyal helpers: the droid R2-D2 and Wookiee co-pilot Chewbacca.
There’s also a teasing hint that super villain Darth Vader is still very much in the present tense, and so is mysterious bounty hunter Boba Fett — or maybe it’s some kind of Boba Fett clone?
But there’s no glimpse of C-3PO, the fussy humanoid robot pal of R2-D2, although he is confirmed to be in the film.
Hamill’s Jedi recruit Luke Skywalker narrates the trailer, which opens with a wide shot of a desert planet and a ruined spacecraft lying abandoned.
“The Force is strong in my family,” Hamill says, as the camera cuts to quick introductions.
“My father has it, I have it, my sister has it. You have that power, too.”
When Hamill says “my father has it,” we see Darth Vader’s crumpled face mask.
When he says “I have it,” we see a prosthetic hand, most likely Luke’s, as he gives a familiar pat to the mechanical head of R2-D2.
When Hamill says “my sister has it,” a hand that looks like Fisher’s Princess Leia passes an object — a lightsaber, perhaps? — to a person whose face isn’t visible.
It’s unclear who the “you” is that Hamill’s Skywalker is addressing. The fact that he says “my family” rather than “our family” may signify he’s not speaking to a relation, but then again, maybe it doesn’t.
It’s not the first time he’s used the phrase “my family” in the series.
Expected to screen in theatres prior to The Avengers: Age of Ultron Marvel superhero movie opening May 1, this latest blast from the Star Wars universe is very much a tease in every sense of the world.
It fits right in with the first teaser, released last fall, which showed only new characters and cast members: ace fighter pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), renegade Stormtrooper Finn (John Boyega) and junkyard scavenger Rey (Daisy Ridley), who are also seen in the new teaser.
But director J.J. Abrams gives fans exactly what they want at the very end, after we see the Millennium Falcon zooming into action: co-pilots Han Solo (Ford) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), who appear to be back inside their famous spacecraft.
“Chewie, we’re home!” Ford says, beaming. Follow Peter Howell on Twitter: @peterhowellfilm