LET’S JUST TALK ABOUT STAR WARS
A lot of big things have been happening in Hollywood over the last couple of days. Ryan Gosling might be the lead in the new Blade Runner. The trailer for Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice leaked, totally by accident and in no way planned by Warner Bros. The Wonder Woman movie lost Michelle McLaren as director but looks to have gotten Patty Jenkins instead. But who wants to talk about any of that when they put out a new Star Wars teaser?? This one had Chewbacca people!
The teaser was unveiled yesterday as part of the annual Star Wars Celebration festival, and along with it came a livestreamed panel with director J.J. Abrams and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, during which a few nuggets of new info were unveiled. Also emojis.
The mention that The Force Awakens used practical special effects as well as digital drew massive cheers from the audience. Abrams said that the desert planet seen in the film is not Tattooine but a new planet called ‘Jakoo’, although he also said that Benedict Cumberbatch definitely wasn’t playing Khan so who the hell knows. At a certain point, new cast members John Boyega, Daisy Ridley and Oscar Isaac took the stage for a Q and A, and managed to get in some practice in for the drudgery of press tours to come by saying that yes, they like Star Wars and yes, they’re excited, while also giving a little bit of insight into their characters. Ridley described her character as a “scavanger”, Boyega confirmed that his character Finn is a stormtrooper and is in “incredible danger”. Oscar Isaac said that his character Poe Dameron is “the best frickin’ pilot in the galaxy” who has “been sent on a mission by a certain princess”, so now you know who you’re new favourite is going to be.
Then the older cast members came out. Fanboyish it might be, but this combination of new and old is a really smart idea that if nothing else, has contributed a lot to the extreme good will for these new Star Wars movies. If there’s one thing fans want for better or worse it’s more of the same and the prequels didn’t really provide that, or did when they shouldn’t have (flippy-doo lightsaber Yoda). As excited as people are for the new stuff, seeing the likes of Han Solo and Chewie again is a huge part of the excitement towards these sequels, and the newest trailer reflects that.
Who knows how these films will end up, but it’s nice to see the Internet near-universally united in optimism. Even Harrison Ford’s “we’re home” is his most enthusiastic line-reading in a decade or two. Call it hype or nostalgia, but there’s a chance here for John Boyega, Lupita Nyong’o or Daidy Ridley to be the iconic heroes of a new generation while us hairy old losers get to have our fun too. It’s easy to make jokes about lens flare, but the minute that John Williams score kicks in, we all let it go, which is nice. As if a million cynical voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were silenced.