There are not many movie trailers so exciting that their very launch date alone warrants frenzied internet speculation, but** Star Wars: The Force Awakens** is no ordinary movie. The speculation and counter-speculation has J.J. Abrams' first teaser trailer debuting in US cinemas over the Thanksgiving weekend.
According to Slash Film's sources, Disney has in mind a limited roll-out across selected American cinemas on November 28-30. But according to a Reddit poster also cited by the site, the plan is even more ambitious: a 90-second trailer will debut in front of every movie in a hundred US theatres over the weekend. The former has the trailer pegged at 60 seconds; the latter claims that it will run to 90. Either way, John Williams has, as previously reported, written new music to accompany it.
Leakier than a Welshman's vegetable patch, Abrams' colossal enterprise has had plot points, on-set photos and character information released onto the web like goods changing hands in a Mos Eisley marketplace, but many have turned out to be bona fide. While everything unverified should be taken with a pinch of salt, the usually reliable Badass Digesthas outlined a first look that focuses on reveals of the individual characters that plays out with Williams' music and ends with Daisy Ridley's voice saying simply, "Wake up." Cue title card and a glimpse of the Millennium Falcon zooming towards the camera.
It's still conjecture and unconfirmed but a first trailer is certainly in the works, so keep your eyes peeled and your browser refreshed for more this week. Back in the realms of verifiable information,
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is still being directed by J.J. Abrams, from a script that he wrote with Lawrence Kasdan, and stars Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Domhnall Gleeson, Andy Serkis, Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Lupita Nyong'o, Gwendoline Christie, Warwick Davis and Max Von Sydow. It will be in our cinemas from December 18, 2015.
Stuck for ways of passing the time until the teaser lands? Here's some behind-the-scenes shots of the older generation from A New Hope, 36 years ago, in a variety of intergalactic locations.