The latest trailer for The Force Awakens is here! While we're still trying to calm ourselves down, there's plenty of discussion to be had about all the goodies we can find in all this new footage. Join us once again as we go on a spoiler-and-speculation-laden dive into the latest scenes from a Galaxy far, far away.
Warning: Just like our breakdown of the earlier teaser, this post will contain links that have unconfirmed spoilers in them — and we'll be delving into some potentially spoilerrific discussion here.
The trailer opens on what appears to be the same desert planet from the first teaser trailer — officially named not as Tatooine as many thought, but Jakku. This time around it's not as barren — not only is there a crashed X-Wing (rumored to be Poe Dameron's, according to several sources), but also a downed Star Destroyer too. Note that there's also a speeder zooming across the landscape. Presumably Rey (Daisy Ridley)'s?
Luke, offering narration, says that the Force is strong in his family as we cut to the BURNED OUT HELMET OF DARTH VADER OH MY GOD. But who fished it out of the funeral pyre at the end of Return of the Jedi? Luke himself? There were rumors of a villain getting a hold of it, a part-cyborg man with a red eye. Could that be Kylo Ren, under his mask?
It's also interesting that Luke says "My father has it", not "My father had it". That's a strange use of present tense for a man who's purportedly dead and burned to a crisp. Update: As commenter Cimmerius points out, Luke's speech is actually the same one he gives to Leia at the Ewok village in Return of the Jedi, with a line cut out and moved to the end. It doesn't quite sound like same speech audio, reused, to me. Maybe it's old Luke reiterating it? But it's definitely the same lines.
But Vader's helmet being part of the film, still part of the universe all these years later, is interesting. Does Vader's helmet still hold some sort of Force power, a lingering effect? Or is Luke talking to his father's Force Ghost?
And as he mentions his own power, we get our first ever look at Luke Skywalker in The Force Awakens. Or at least a partial look, as a hooded figure places its hand on R2-D2. Note that the hand is cybernetic, so it's definitely Luke — and all the fake flesh has peeled away since we saw it in Jedi.
And then, whoa. Two women exchange a very familiar weapon.
Luke says "My sister has it", implying that this is Leia herself being handed a Lightsaber — not just any Lightsaber either. It's Anakin Skywalker's, the one that Luke lost when Vader sliced his hand off on Cloud City! We even heard that same saber in the first teaser. It looks like those rumors about Luke's old lightsaber being important to the plot — and being what essentially brings the young new cast together with the old team — were true.
And just as John Williams' Force theme begins to swell, Luke ends his narration with "You have that power too.". Who is he speaking to? A child of his own, if he's talking about the legacy of the Skywalkers? Or, considering he mentions Leia, he could be talking about a child she has, with Han.
There's been plenty of rumors that Rey is the daughter of Han and Leia, with some even saying that Rey is a code name for her real name Kira, a name regularly attached to the character before Trading Cards unveiling the name Rey were released.
Gorgeous, gorgeous X-Wings (the new model of course) flying over the lake we saw in the teaser. Oscar Isaac's Poe Dameron seems to be enjoying himself quite a bit.
Our first good look at Rey without her goggles on sees her (armed with a staff we saw in the first official pictures of the new team revealed earlier), Finn and BB-8 on the run from an explosion. You can juuust make out a TIE Fighter in the background on the left, so presumably the Empire are conducting an aerial attack on our heroes. Note that Finn is out of his Stormtrooper uniform and into some more casual gear too.
More tantalising footage of Kylo Ren and his controversial "Crossguard" Lightsaber. For the first time we get a look at what's under the hood, too — fans of the Star Wars video games might want to draw plenty of comparisons to the Sith Lord Darth Revan, featured in Bioware's Knights of the Old Republic.
In the background you can see some troopers looking over what appears to be a burning village. There's been a bit of discussion that the burning of innocent civilians by the Empire is an attack that Finn is present for as a Stormtrooper, and his unwillingness to participate lands him in cuffs for disobedience.
Behold, our boys (and women — there was much hubbub over the apparent casting of British actress Amybeth Hargreaves as a female Stormtrooper in the film) in white! Yes, Stormtroopers have had a visual make-over in the 30 years since Episode VI. We got a good look at the helmets in the first teaser, but now here's a better shot of their updated body armor too.
Another interesting thing to note is that it looks like the Empire has gone through a bit of a branding update — that logo on the banner is definitely not the Imperial emblem they used to have. And they're based out of an Ice planet somewhere, too. Could it be Hoth?
Maybe this Empire isn't quite the one we're familiar with, but one that was born out of the mess they found themselves in after Jedi, with the Emperor and Vader dead.
A better look at the updated TIE Fighter design! They now have white wing panels, contrasting with the darker metallic hull parts.
But that TIE Fighter looks like it's firing on its fellow Imperials. This lends credence to the rumour that part of the film's opening features Finn, alongside a captured Poe Dameron, hijacking a TIE Fighter to escape the Imperial Star Destroyer they found themselves on.
Finn removes his Stormtrooper helmet, looking deeply concerned. The orange light means this could place him at that burning village we saw earlier — maybe regretting he signed up to be part of the Empire. You can also quickly see blood stains on his helmet as he removes it — allegedly these come from a wounded Stormtrooper ally that Finn fails to save at the village, further pushing him away from the Empire.
Some Imperial transports (including a new shuttle that, unlike the old ones, doesn't have a third wing!) fly towards a Star Destroyer. Notice that this isn't your run of the mill Imperial-Class Star Destroyer: The front of the hull on the bottom juts out ahead of the top layer, and it appears that the main bridge area is much more bulky.
Look at the sheen on that chrome Stormtrooper armour! And a swish cape too. Note the red rocks to the left — is this inside a cave, with an Imperial base? Is this the crashed Star Destroyer?
There's been much talk of this Chrometrooper being an elite guard in the Imperial ranks — more specifically that not only are they called Captain Phasma, but that this character is played by the fabulous badass/Game of Thrones star Gwendoline Christie.
The adorable BB-8 (an entirely physical prop by the way — not CG) peeks his head around a corner on what very much looks like the Millenium Falcon. There's been talk that Finn and Rey return the ship to Han and Chewie, so the presence of BB-8 on the ship definitely lends credence to that.
A closer look at Daisy Ridley as Rey, this time without her goggles from the first trailer...
As she appears to extend her hand out to Finn. An alliance between the self-proclaimed scavenger and the former Stormtrooper is formed! Or possibly, even a romance.
A continuation of the TIE Fighter/Millenium Falcon chase from the end of the first teaser sees the ships enter a derelict ship on Jakku (is it the Star Destroyer we saw earlier? Update: As many have pointed out, it looks like it's actually an upside down Super Star Destroyer. That's awesome.). Check out the fabulous gif in the header to see it in action.
Which leads into a shot of our first look not just inside the new TIE Fighter cockpit, but at the new TIE Pilot uniform too! Like the old one was to the old Stormtrooper uniform, it looks like a modified version of the new Stormtrooper design. This time there's only a single air tube coming out of the helmet, and it looks like they may were a silvery jump suit under the black armor. Snazzy.
"Chewie... we're home."
Try not to cry, try not to cry... TOO LATE. Han Solo and Chewbacca, together again! Commence your freaking out.
They're once again on board the Millennium Falcon. The fact that not only is Chewie ready to shoot his Bowcaster, as well as Han declaring that they're "home", seems to imply the pair haven't seen their trusty ship for a while — hence why Finn, Rey and BB-8 would need to return it to them. What happened that meant they would have to abandon the Falcon somewhere? Rumour has it that at some point they upgraded to a Super Star Destroyer, but they seem happy to be back in the old girl.
As always, hit us up with what you thought — and anything you noticed in the trailer — in the comments. There's how many months until this movie's out again? Good lord.
All gifs made by Casey Chan/Sploid.