As a crashed Imperial Star Destroyer lies wrecked on the sands of the newly-revealed desert planet of Jakku (and the Millenium Falcon, as fast as ever, flies through it with a snazzy new TIE Fighter in hot pursuit) …
And a terrifying new villain straight from dark side central casting – speaking of which we meet the main cast if you’re paying attention – by the name of Kylo Ren demonstrates he has a lot of power at his disposal …
And one Luke Skywalker, face mysteriously hidden from view, intones that the Force is strong is in his family, even the dead once-evil ones with burnt, broken helmets (guess who? Hi dad!), as he hands a light sabre to a young eager hand …
I think we can safely say, extant Empire notwithstanding which looks to be down but not out, that this is indeed the second teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens that we have been waiting for …
That includes you R2-D2, still faithfully by your master’s side, and also the snazzy though frighteningly badass chrome trooper running through a suitably-imposing ship gun in hand, and yes, even you stormtroopers 2.0, looking all shiny, white and re-designed (a little) …
Unveiled at the Star Wars Celebration, a four day galaxy-spanning – OK to be fair just the Anaheim Convention Center but that’s still plenty large enough for a Jawa sandcrawler transport full of droids, a specially-built Mos Eisley Cantina and thus, many villainous scum oh my! – currently underway in southern California, it’s everything long time fans have bene hoping it would be.
The music alone, as grand, stirring and goose bump-inducing as ever, is enough to make you feel like a wide-eyed little kid again, but then you see everything you love about George Lucas’s legendary galactic adventures unfurl in short but gloriously awe-inspiring bursts, and you ARE that little kid again, sitting spellbound in the cinema in 1977 (or whenever) as the opening titles of Star Wars: A New Hope scrolls out before you.
The sense that you have somehow been magically transported back to a time when all you had to worry about were Wookies, smiling, goodhearted rogues and small, green masters of the Force with unusual syntax, is made complete when at the end of the trailer Han Solo and Chewbacca emerge from the Millenium Falcon as Jabba the Hutt’s bete noir happily announces to his longtime danger-dodging companion “Chewie we’re home”.
And with that, I am 12 years old again, pop clutched tightly in hand, swept deliriously happy once more to a galaxy far, far away …
Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens 17 December 2015 in Australia and 18 December in USA, UK and New Zealand.