Just minutes ago, thousands of geeks tuned into ESPN’s Monday Night Football, and those were just the dorks keeping up on their fantasy football scores. The rest of their rowdy friends were there to see the first official trailer (after two teasers) for Star Wars: Episode VII—The Force Awakens. (That being said, it was this or Monday Night Raw, and those guys are a real bunch of dorks.)
It looks the same, but different…bigger. Finally, something resembling a space battle, but lots of aerial ground assaults as well. Kylo Ren doing something evil to Poe Dameron. Han embracing Leia. The Falcon in hyperspace. There is more camaraderie in that little moment between Poe and Finn than in all of the prequel trilogy—“Anakin Skywalker, meet Obi-Wan Kenobi,” anyone?— and there appears to be much fear in Rey as she watches First Order forces invading from above. The trailer doesn’t really reveal much about the plot that fans haven‘t already figured out—Kylo Ren being a great admirer of Darth Vader, for example—but it does expand on the concept of the heroes of the original trilogy becoming legends in the Star Wars universe, and features slightly different versions of some classic music from the original score, which is pretty cool.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens hits theaters December 18th, and advance tickets are available for purchase online now...if you can still get them.