When the first trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens debuted in 2014, it was a cause for an international holiday. Fans and casual viewers alike stopped what they were doing to rediscover old friends in new locations. It could be that Star Wars is now everywhere, with the franchise now expanding into films like Rogue One and the forthcoming Han Solo film. Yet there’s a sense of ‘been there’ to this new teaser, even if it still makes us tingle in the deep-seated fan places.
The trailer picks up almost immediately after the point the previous film finished, with Rey (Daisy Ridley) still wearing the same clothes as the final scene of The Force Awakens. Not a lot of Old Navy outlets on that island, apparently. It appears that Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) is somewhat reluctant to train her, preferring for the Jedi to quietly die out. Meanwhile, a flurry of ships and explosions indicates that the conflict between the Resistance and the First Order wages on.
“Breathe,” is the first word we hear, as Hamill’s unmistakable voice begins a training regime that we might recall from Empire Strikes Back. Yet the trailer itself is pleasingly filled with almost entirely newer characters, with the exception of the back of the late, great Carrie Fisher’s head. It marks Disney’s commitment to focusing on the non-legacy characters in the films going forward, although we can fully expect more self-referential moments from Rian Johnson’s sequel.
On the one hand, the teaser trailer for STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI does exactly what you would expect. With very little story and a frenetic series of cuts between lightsabers, Resistance ships, fallen Jedi, Millennium Falcons and R2 units, it strikes the right balance (pardon the pun) between new information and staying on the south side of spoilers. Yet the abstract images with the words “Light” and “Darkness” drifting over the top all feels a bit expected from the promotional side of things, leaving us to keep our expectations tempered for the next chapter in the 40-year-old saga.
STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI is scheduled for Australian release on 14 December 2017, and 15 December in the US, from Disney. The posters, below, also recall familiar elements from the past, with Daisy’s pose reminiscent of Luke’s in the original Star Wars poster from 1977.
